PA Supreme Court Allows Big Green $$ in RGGI Carbon Tax Lawsuit
A disappointing (but not surprising) decision from the Democrat leftists on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was issued last Thursday. The so-called Supremes ruled in favor of allowing three well-financed Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club, PennFuture, and Clean Air Council, to join a lawsuit attempting to force the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) obscene carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired plants in the Keystone State. Big Green can now participate, bringing along big money and attorneys to support the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is trying to force state participation in RGGI.
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Pennsylvania’s Democrat Party is hellbent on driving the Marcellus Shale industry out of the state. They have been for years. That’s just a truthful observation and beyond dispute. One year ago, the Dems in the PA House passed a resolution by a single vote that directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC) to “study” Pennsylvania’s revenue from the oil and gas industry, comparing it with the top five states for natural gas production in the U.S. (see 
Last week, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is now distributing money raised by the shale impact fee (PA’s version of a severance tax) from 2023 to municipalities and government agencies (see 
In March, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Scranton, PA, to announce a proposal to “immediately pull Pennsylvania out of a multi-state carbon cap-and-trade program” (the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) and instead enroll PA in its very own RGGI-like carbon tax program (see 
There’s no way to sugarcoat bad news. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) predicted in January that money raised by the shale impact fee (PA’s version of a severance tax) would plummet this year (see 
As we report in a companion post today, Pennsylvania is currently dishing out close to $180 million in impact fees raised from 2023 shale activity — PA’s version of a severance tax (see PA PUC Distributes 2023 Impact Fee – Revenue Dropped $99M YOY). As the name implies, some 60% of the money raised goes to the counties and municipalities where drilling happens, those “impacted” by shale drilling. The other 40% goes to the black hole of Harrisburg for redistribution to various state agencies and the other counties with no shale drilling. Let’s look at how some counties and towns will spend the money coming their way.
Last Friday, MDN told you about a problem brewing that will block new hydrogen projects from getting built in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
For months, MDN has told you about a problem brewing that will block new hydrogen projects from getting built in the Marcellus/Utica. It’s an obscure tax rule known as the 45V tax credit, part of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The Bidenistas at the White House, Treasury Department, and Dept. of Energy proposed a new IRS rule in late December that the 45V tax credits (as provided for in the IRA) can only be used if the hydrogen produced is “green” — meaning NOT made from natural gas. In addition, the electricity used to produce the hydrogen can’t come from fossil fuel sources like natural gas (if you want the tax credit). Biden kneecapped the hydrogen hub projects in the M-U (see 
Last August, MDN told you about a new Cambridge University study published in the journal Science exposing the sale of carbon credits as a scam (see 
In 2021, as he was running for Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged that if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin kept his promise, although it took longer than he had hoped (and is still being challenged in court). In addition to not paying as much for electricity post-RGGI, ratepayers just got another gift: Dominion Energy, the primary utility company servicing Virginia, is dropping an average fee of $4.50 per month from the utility bills of Virginia residents.
Yes! It’s about time!! Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw (Republican from Lycoming County) is about to introduce a new bill that will cut off millions of dollars in tax revenues that flow from shale drilling to any municipality (county, town, village, city) that launches a lawsuit against “Big Oil,” as recently happened with Bucks County, a Philadelphia suburb (see 
Greg Wrightstone, a Pennsylvania native, is a geologist, the executive director of the CO2 Coalition, and an author. Wrightstone recently published an article detailing how Pennsylvania’s environment is not in the state of crisis that alarmists say it is. He implores Gov. Josh Shapiro to get his head out of his…mental morass…and stop worrying about mythical catastrophic global warming. Overall, the weather has been getting better and agricultural production is up in Pennsylvania. Shapiro needs to drop the doom and gloom routine.