Permanently Canceling RGGI Carbon Tax was Worth Late PA Budget

Sometimes politics is a game of "chicken" whereby you must keep fighting and wait out the other side when you *know* you are in the right. Such was the case with Pennsylvania Democrats' insistence that the state join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. RGGI aims to force coal- and gas-fired power plants to shut down by making them super expensive to operate. Tax them out of existence on the theory that unreliable renewables like wind and solar would replace them. But Republicans in the PA Senate kept fighting---for seven long years---and finally won (see VICTORY! PA Budget Deal Kills RGGI Carbon Tax for Good). Republicans played "chicken" with Democrats during this year's budget negotiations and got the Dems to cave after almost five months with no budget in place.

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