Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)
Tom Wolf seems focused on alienating every last working person in Pennsylvania in signaling his green virtues to gentry class peers. The AFL-CIO has had it.
It becomes more obvious every day that the rank and file (even the leaders) of trade unions are breaking with their Democrat Party bosses over issues like insane taxes on natural gas. The divide is particularly acute in blue states like Pennsylvania, which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and likely will again in 2020 because the Dems keep shooting themselves in the head with stupid taxes and regulations that kill jobs. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO issued a statement yesterday thanking the Pennsylvania Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee, part of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, for listening to the union’s concerns about Gov. Wolf’s proposed carbon tax at a recent hearing.
Big time opposition continues to Wolf’s plan to force the state to participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon aimed at coal and natural gas-fired electric power plants, with an eye to driving them out of business. We’ve written plenty about Wolf’s naked power grab, to force the state into RGGI without the legislature’s consent (see our RGGI stories here).
In January we told you about a huge number of trade union members lining up to oppose the plan. Those unionists have joined forces with the companies they work for in a coalition called Power PA Jobs Alliance with a mission to defeat RGGI in Pennsylvania.
Pig-headed Wolf continues to force the DEP to go through the motions of joining RGGI. Hearings, like that held by the Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee, are part of the process. Every time there’s a hearing, union members show up in force to object to RGGI. Apparently the PA Democrat Party has a political death wish.
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO statement issued yesterday:
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO thanks the members of the Pennsylvania Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee (AQTAC) for hearing the concerns of working people in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) enrollment. Union workers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, and consumer advocacy organizations testified on the ramifications of the RGGI enrollment on Pennsylvanians and communities across the Commonwealth.
Workers voiced their opposition to RGGI because its implementation would displace or eliminate jobs at coal and natural gas plants and devastate communities. Pennsylvania’s enrollment in RGGI must include a robust and transparent discussion accessible to consumers and workers; understandably, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges and required adjustment in public engagement, not to mention its economic consequences.
“RGGI enrollment would impose a carbon tax on coal and natural gas plants that would prove financially fatal to several key jobmakers around the state. That, combined with the economic impact of COVID-19, would decimate communities and pass energy rate hikes onto consumers at the worst possible time,” said federation President Rick Bloomingdale.
“Given that data modeling demonstrates that RGGI would have a marginal impact on air quality and other environmental factors, there is no guarantee that RGGI’s intention would speed Pennsylvania’s progress toward reducing carbon emissions,” Bloomingdale continued.
Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder remarked, “We must take every action today to preserve Pennsylvania jobs. High-risk decisions must have a significant economic return for our communities; so far, any rewards from RGGI enrollment do not outweigh the risks. We have put forth that the best way to make significant strides in our environmental health is to invest in a 21st-century update to our energy grid and infrastructure. Right now is the time to seize the moment, bringing good jobs to communities that desperately need them and make long-term progress in reducing our carbon footprint. RGGI is not a solution, and Pennsylvanians can’t afford it.”
The next meeting to be held on RGGI will be at the DEP Citizens Advisory Council on May 19. Be sure to participate and register your objections to this horrible plan.
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