PA Judge Reinstates Order Blocking PA’s Entry into RGGI Carbon Tax
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force PA’s coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to begin paying an obscenely high tax on carbon dioxide emissions as part of the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) got blocked on July 1 by PA Commonwealth Court (see PA Commonwealth Court Blocks RGGI Carbon Tax Pending Fall Trial). Wolf appealed the court decision to the PA Supreme Court. Appealing the case automatically unblocks the new tax and puts it into play again (see PA Hit with Elec Power Price Uncertainty as Wolf Appeals RGGI Case). However, the same Commonwealth Court judge has just reinstated his earlier block until hearings are held (later this year) on the three different cases brought against RGGI.
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What’s fair is fair. If a county blocks drilling under county-owned land, as the Allegheny County Council recently did (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s foolish plan to force PA’s coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to begin paying an obscenely high tax on carbon dioxide emissions as part of the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) got blocked on July 1 by PA Commonwealth Court (see 
We finally have some good news to share with respect to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s foolish plan to force PA’s coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to begin paying an obscenely high tax on carbon dioxide emissions as part of the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). After exhausting various attempts to block it, Wolf published a final RGGI regulation in the Pennsylvania Bulletin in April (see 
Just yesterday MDN told you about this year’s distribution of last year’s (2021) impact fee revenue to local municipalities and to the black hole of Harrisburg politicians (see 
Sometimes U.S. Joe Manchin from West Virginia makes us nervous. He’s done great work in blocking Joe Biden’s radicalized agenda to destroy fossil energy by blocking the Build Back Worse program Biden and the Dems desperately wanted (saving the country from complete ruin with runaway hyperinflation). But then we read about Manchin tinkering with the idea to assess a tariff on foreign imported goods, like steel and cement, that are made in countries (like China) that don’t give a flip about environmental controls. Supposedly such a tariff would encourage those countries to use more natural gas, or encourage more American manufacturing of those goods (because our plants use clean natgas). We’re not sure what to make of Manchin’s efforts.
In a court case that stretches back to 2019, Antero Resources, the biggest driller in West Virginia, challenged how its wells had been valued for tax purposes in Doddridge and Richie counties for 2016 and 2017. Antero said the combined value of its wells for those years should have been $1.488 billion. The state tax commissioner reckoned the value to be $1.513 billion. The controversy of well valuations not only for Antero but other drillers led to a reworking of how the state law values shale wells (see 
Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s obscene carbon tax, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), will not go into effect until “pending further order of the court” (see 
The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) is highly respected by all of PA state government. IFO’s mission is to review state budgetary policy and render expert, nonpartisan opinion. The IFO, at the request of the Republicans in the state legislature, recently reviewed Gov. Wolf’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) modeling, presenting its findings to a joint hearing of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee and the Community Economic and Recreational Development Committee on Tuesday. The IFO report finds that the money PA will spend on emissions credits at RGGI auctions will result in most PA electric rates quadrupling. You read that right–get ready to pay 4X for electricity if RGGI goes into effect and you live in the Keystone State.
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 637, which would block the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) authority to limit carbon dioxide emissions (thereby blocking PA’s entrance into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) passed by a vote of 126 to 72. Some 10 Democrats crossed the aisle to vote in favor of the bill. HB 637 now goes to the PA Senate for a vote. What then?