Pennsylvania governor appeals RGGI pause to state’s highest court
Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has appealed a lower court’s injunction that temporarily stopped Pennsylvania from publishing a regulation to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Patrick McDonnell, the state’s head of the Department of Environmental Protection, filed the appeal Thursday to the state Supreme Court.
Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court on Tuesday blocked the Legislative Reference Bureau from publishing the RGGI regulation, which it had planned to do on Saturday. The court did not explain the reason for issuing the injunction.
The injunction came just a day after Senate Republicans narrowly failed to override Wolf’s veto on a resolution that would have killed RGGI, with publication of the regulation marking the last step of the regulatory process the administration undertook to join the program that puts a price on carbon.
Republicans filed a motion on March 25 to block Pennsylvania from joining RGGI, arguing Wolf usurped the Legislature’s authority in joining RGGI by executive action, since the program requires power sector polluters pay for the carbon they emit and only legislators can enact a tax.