Clean Air Council Applauds Governor Wolf for Vetoing HB 2025

Harrisburg, PA (September 24, 2020) This afternoon, Governor Wolf stood up for Pennsylvanians and vetoed House Bill 2025 (Struzzi-R-Indiana), a radical piece of anti-environmental legislation that would have blocked the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from taking any future action to control carbon pollution.  It would have immediately blocked Pennsylvania’s ongoing efforts to participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council, issued the following statement:

“I congratulated Governor Wolf last week on the successful Environmental Quality Board vote to advance his carbon limits program forward, and I applaud him today for vetoing a reckless, dangerous piece of legislation in HB 2025 that would have reversed that progress.  HB 2025 would indefinitely obstruct any and all policy efforts to reduce carbon pollution in Pennsylvania.  It’s that simple.  Supporters deceitfully framed it instead as a mere process bill, one that would give the General Assembly a voice in setting climate policy.  This is fundamentally misleading because, under state law, the legislature already has a robust role in the development of regulations and, quite frankly, we know the legislative majority’s position: block progress, deregulate the fossil fuel industry, and drill our way to ‘prosperity.’

Climate change is an urgent, existential threat that demands serious, commensurate policy solutions.  Thank you, Governor Wolf, for standing with the vast majority of Pennsylvanians who agree and who support your plan to cut carbon while creating tens of thousands of new jobs.”

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