By Jennifer Quinn, Legislative and Political Director
It’s been a wild ride in the legislature during the first few months of 2022. You might think I’m exaggerating when I say it’s been “all RGGI (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative), all the time” but that is the (mostly) sad truth. There have, however, been a few good and bad bills we’ve been focusing on, too.
Anti-RGGI
HB 637 would halt Pennsylvania’s efforts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and would prevent the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from ever regulating carbon without legislative approval. We saw this bill amended in February to add $250 million in American Rescue Plan money for carbon capture, hydrogen development, gas well capping, and worker transition. This was a rather transparent attempt to reduce Democratic opposition to the bill. It didn’t work, but the bill still passed the House 126-72. It’s now awaiting a concurrence vote in the Senate before heading to the Governor’s desk for a likely veto.
SCRRR1
Senate Concurrent Regulatory Review Resolution 1 would prevent Pennsylvania from joining RGGI. This disapproval resolution passed both Chambers late last year and was vetoed by Governor Wolf soon after. The Senate attempted a veto override earlier this month. Their attempt to secure a 2/3rds majority failed, so SCRRR1 is officially dead.
We had targeted six Democratic senators who were ‘on the fence’ when it came to this vote. This is a sad reality given the fact that a veto override is usually much more about the politics than the policy. We, along with countless other environmental groups, managed to limit our losses, with only three Democratic senators voting against their party. All Republican senators voted against RGGI and with their party.
We also saw a shamelessly opportunistic response to the war in Ukraine with a package of bills meant to increase gas production in Pennsylvania.
HB 2450
This bill seeks to unilaterally change the current one vote per state on the Delaware River Basin Commission by instead basing the number of votes on the land area each state has within the Delaware River watershed. This would give Pennsylvania 6 votes, 3 for New Jersey, 2 for New York, and 1 for Delaware and the federal government each. This is an obvious attempt to try and secure the votes to overturn the current moratorium on fracking in the Delaware River Watershed.
HB 2451
This bill seeks to unilaterally amend Pennsylvania’s version of the Delaware River Basin Compact by including a provision that would overturn the current moratorium on fracking within the watershed.
Both of these bills passed the House in mid April. We’re fairly sure they’ll be vetoed by the Governor should the Senate pass them. Plus, one state in an interstate compact can’t act unilaterally. The other members of the DRBC and the federal government would have to give their approval for these changes, making these bills nothing more than political pandering.
HB 2458
This bill would authorize a taskforce to create a report and present recommendations to the General Assembly on making the Port of Philadelphia a liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminal. These export terminals store, handle, process, transport and use large quantities of other heavier hydrocarbon fuels that are much more volatile and dangerous than LNG itself and can pose a catastrophic risk of explosions and a potentially significant danger to the public. This bill has already passed the House.
HB 2461
This bill would allow more state parks and state forests to be leased for gas development even though 65% of existing shale gas leases in state forests have not been developed. This bill has also passed the House.
In case you were thinking that Harrisburg is just one bad bill after another, there are actually a few good bills we’re working on.
SB 525
This bill would use $500 million of American Rescue Plan money to establish a Growing Greener 3. Growing Greener is a hugely successful program that has funded hundreds of local parks and trail projects, conserved more than 80,000 acres of threatened open space, and restored hundreds of miles of streams and waterways. Unfortunately, it’s been underfunded for many years, but this bill could change that. We’ve been working to secure cosponsors and increase support among Democrats and Republicans. The closer we get to budget season (June) the less likely it is that this bill will pass as a stand-alone bill, but it then becomes more likely that it could be part of the upcoming budget.
SB 1135
This bill will create a Whole Home Repairs Fund administered by the Department of Community and Economic Development. The Fund will allow providers to assess and address homes holistically by creating a one-stop shop for home repairs, allowing people to live in safe, healthy, energy efficient homes. This bill is detailed further here.
This blog was included as part of the May 2022 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!