In January of 2016, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that will be before state legislatures across the nation this year. With little expected on the legislative front until September, and since Pennsylvania will close out the 2015-2016 session this fall, it’s worth a look to see what our own elected officials are doing to address each of the issues. The second topic up for consideration: the Clean Power Plan.

In order to reduce carbon pollution from existing fossil fuel power plants in the United States, the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began work on the federal Clean Power Plan in 2014. The goal is to reduce carbon pollution to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The federal Clean Power Plan was finalized on August 3, 2015- just about one year ago- after the EPA received over four million public comments. According to the final federal plan, each state is required to independently develop its own plan by September of 2016 in order to reduce carbon pollution based on emissions guidelines established by the EPA. If a state fails to submit a plan or the plan is inadequate, the EPA will impose a federal plan upon the state.

Pennsylvania began formulating its own Clean Power Plan in the fall of 2015. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) opened a 60-day public comment period and held 14 listening sessions on the federal plan throughout the state. The DEP, tasked with developing the state plan, wanted to hear how Pennsylvania should approach a state compliance plan with the goal of releasing a draft in the spring of 2016 and submitting the final plan to the EPA by September. Although power plants are the main focus, Governor Tom Wolf said that “clean coal is a part of our energy portfolio, as is natural gas, solar, wind and other sources of power, and all of this has to be part of a compressive strategy” to adopt an adequate Clean Power Plan for the Commonwealth.

However, in February of 2016, as the Commonwealth was working on the state plan, and exactly six months after the President’s announcement, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay on implementation of the federal Clean Power Plan until a lawsuit in a lower court is resolved; no plans can take effect until the stay is lifted. Additionally, the Wolf administration has since announced Pennsylvania will not meet the September 2016 deadline, but will “continue planning and engagement with stakeholders pending financial decision on this issue by the Supreme Court.”

Despite the stay issued by the court and the unattainable September deadline, the DEP and the Administration continued to work on the state plan. Pennsylvania’s first attempt to adopt legislation to implement the Clean Power Plan was in the March of 2016. A bill to amend the Fiscal Code included a provision that required DEP to submit the state’s Clean Power Plan to the Legislature before the EPA received it for federal approval. If either the House or Senate disapproved the Plan, the DEP would be forced to amend it. The bill, H.B. 1327 (Peifer, R-Pike) was ultimately vetoed; Governor Wolf called the provisions “an unwarranted intrusion upon executive authority.”

Since then, the Administration and the legislature have come to an agreement on how the Commonwealth should address the federal clean power mandate. In June of 2016, the legislature enacted S.B. 1195 (White, R-Indiana), which amended Pennsylvania Greenhouse Gas Regulation Implementation Act to provide for the submission of the state plan. According to the legislation—which is now Act 57 of 2016- a resolution must be considered by the appropriate standing committee in each chamber (the Environmental Resources and Energy Committees of both the House and Senate), and then, considered by the full House and Senate. If either chamber disapproves the resolution containing state plan, an 180-day public comment period will open, and a new version of the state plan must be resubmitted within 60 calendar days after the close of the comment period. If the state needs more time to meet the requirements of the Act, the DEP can request an extension of time when submitting an initial state plan. However, the DEP cannot submit a state plan to the EPA for approval until after expiration of the stay issued by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In addition to the previously mentioned legislation:

  • Rep. Tallman (R-Adams) circulated a co-sponsorship memo declaring the Clean Power Plan harmful to Pennsylvania, formally requesting that the EPA abandon the regulations and urging the U.S. Congress to intervene in this matter to protect our residents.
  • S.R. 277 (Stefano, R-Fayette) urges DEP to request a two-year extension for submitting a plan to comply with the Federal Clean Power Plan and directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct a cost compliance study prior to final implementation plan to EPA.
  • H.B. 2030 (Santarsiero, D-Bucks) would “serve as a tool in meeting the Plan’s requirements and even surpassing them” by amending the Pennsylvania Climate Change Act to set a goal of 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
  • H.R. 259 (Neuman, D-Washington) establishes a Joint Select Committee bipartisan bicameral committee to do an investigation of the rules and make a report to the House, Senate and the DEP outlining the appropriate way to comply with federal greenhouse gas rule.

Though these bills can be considered at any time until the legislative session ends on November 30, it’s unlikely they will be brought up for a vote. It seems that the Commonwealth has established at least a process for adoption of the plan in Act 57, though a Clean Power Plan for Pennsylvania has yet to be adopted. It’s expected that work on the plan will continue into the 2016-2017 legislative session.