State High Court Should Confirm Unconstitutionality of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

Originally published by LNP/Lancaster Online.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on Pennsylvania’s controversial and unconstitutional membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

This multistate cap-and-trade program—illegally joined, in our view, by former Gov. Tom Wolf—seeks to impose an economywide tax on power plants for each ton of carbon dioxide emitted annually. Carbon tax proponents claim it will curb emissions. Yet, without Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative assistance, Pennsylvania has already successfully cut more emissions than any of the 10 other states participating in the initiative.

Simply put, we believe the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania constitution explicitly authorizes only the General Assembly to issue and collect taxes, providing the Legislature with its exclusive power of the purse. For a tax to be constitutional, the General Assembly must first approve it. Neither the governor nor state agencies can unilaterally enact and impose a tax. If the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reverses the lower court’s decision, Pennsylvania would be the only state among the participating states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to join via executive order, not by legislative consensus.