On October 11, Rep. Tom Mehaffie (R-Dauphin), prime sponsor of House Bill 11 that would imposed a $500 million a year cost on electric ratepayers to subsidize the state’s nuclear power plants, released a statement regarding Gov. Tom Wolf’s October 3 executive order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Pennsylvania through participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative--
“The vast majority of Pennsylvania residents care deeply about improving air quality, including limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that have a negative impact on our climate and weather patterns, and result in associated health issues.
“For many years I, along with many of my colleagues in the House and Senate, worked hard to ensure that Pennsylvania’s most reliable, non-emitting sources of electricity – our nuclear fleet – would be valued for their avoidance of emissions, including carbon dioxide.
“Unfortunately, our efforts to date have been hampered by a well-funded and orchestrated campaign to close our Commonwealth’s nuclear stations and replace them with fossil-fired generation sources, which was recently evidenced by the closing of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.
“One of the fundamental flaws that continues to contribute to nuclear power production’s decline is that fossil-fuel generators are not assigned the costs associated with their emission of carbon-dioxide and the related issues resulting from those emissions. Currently, those damages are largely not reflected in the price of generating electricity.
“Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) would, through a market-based approach, levy the cost of this pollution to those power producers that emit carbon dioxide.
“In a report issued by the General Assembly’s Nuclear Energy Caucus, the development of a state-based or regionally-driven mechanism like RGGI was offered as an option to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and more accurately value the contribution of non-emitting power sources, such as nuclear plants.
“While I had championed a different approach to resolving Pennsylvania’s nuclear challenges, I believe that absent the passage of House Bill 11, something must be done to preserve the state’s remaining four nuclear stations that contribute so much to our economy, environment, and our energy and national security.
“Certainly, the terms and conditions upon which Pennsylvania joins RGGI matter greatly, and I caution the governor that our economy, particularly our energy sectors, will be impacted.
“However, a common theme - even among opponents of House Bill 11 - was that we should utilize a market-based approach to managing carbon-dioxide emissions. Joining RGGI should satisfy that goal.”
Visit Rep. Mehaffie’s Nuclear Energy In PA webpage for more information on his proposal.
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[Posted: October 11, 2019] www.PaEnvironmentDigest.com
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