PITTMAN PRESSES CASE AGAINST RGGI DURING BUDGET HEARINGS

At yesterday’s Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing, Senator Joe Pittman questioned state officials on the rising costs of implementing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which he says would not only potentially close Indiana County’s power plants, but send the price of electricity skyrocketing as Pennsylvania shifts from an exporter of electricity to an importer.

Pittman pointed out to Revenue Secretary Dan Hassell that the RGGI proposal, under the administration’s own definition, RGGI is a tax and not a fee.  The governor estimates a million dollars in administrative costs but $410 million in revenues paid by power generators, and according to the senator, that’s a tax.

Pittman also urged Director Matthew Knittel of the Independent Fiscal Office to use a new software tool they now have to do a deep analysis of RGGI.  He noted that the cost of the carbon trading allowances charged to the utilities went from about five dollars a ton two years ago to thirteen dollars a ton this past December.  Knittel responded that a study has not been done because it has always been a “policy” before and is not yet considered a “formal proposal”.

Knittel told Pittman that a formal request would have to be made in order for them to undertake an analysis, and the senator responded that he would make the request happen.