Tell Your PA Senator to Vote No on Bill Blocking DEP Action on Carbon Pollution

From the Clean Air Council (http://www.cleanair.org/):

Next week the Pennsylvania Senate is likely to vote on a tremendously harmful piece of anti-environmental legislation that would block the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from taking any action to control carbon pollution in Pennsylvania! If passed, Senate Bill 119 would strip DEP of its existing statutory and constitutional authority to limit carbon pollution and would block the state from participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Governor Wolf vetoed this same bill last session, but the legislature is trying to ram it through once again.

Tell your Senator to vote NO on SB 119 at https://cleanaircouncil.salsalabs.org/urgeyoursenatortovotenoonfossilfuelbackedsb119/index.html.

Among other things, SB 119 would:

• Result in up to 227 million tons of additional carbon pollution being emitted from Pennsylvania power plants by 2030;
• Prevent Pennsylvania from receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funds from participating in RGGI; and
• Give the General Assembly unilateral veto power over any DEP proposal to control carbon pollution, not just RGGI participation.

The bill’s sponsors are looking to protect fossil fuel interests, especially the coal industry. They ignore the fact that coal plants have been closing for over a decade because of market forces and the fracked gas industry. Coal plants in Pennsylvania have only a few years left, whether the state participates in RGGI or not. With RGGI, Pennsylvania would generate potentially billions of dollars this decade that the legislature could help direct to communities affected by the transition from fossil fuels. What do SB 119 sponsors propose instead? Block RGGI, bury their heads in the sand, and do nothing.

Contact your State Senator now and make your voice heard.

We need Pennsylvania to control carbon pollution from its power sector, the fifth-dirtiest in the country, and help impacted communities transition to a post-coal world. SB 119 would block both.