EnviroPolitics Blog

RGGI Rule Faces Elimination Amid Pennsylvania’s Budget Gridlock

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

As Pennsylvania’s budget impasse stretches into November, the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) hangs by a thread—threatened not just by legislative inaction, but by a coordinated campaign to undermine clean energy policy in favor of fossil fuel interests.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is now deliberating whether the state’s RGGI rule—designed to cap carbon emissions from power plants—is a lawful regulatory fee or an unconstitutional tax. If the court sides with Republican lawmakers, the program could be struck down entirely. This legal uncertainty has emboldened opponents in the legislature, who have used the budget impasse to block funding and stall implementation. 💬

Environmental Advocates Push Back

PennFuture, a leading environmental advocacy group, recently issued a scathing response to Senate Republicans’ letter to PJM, the regional grid operator. The letter had called for an “all of the above” energy strategy but was criticized for spreading misinformation about renewables and battery storage. PennFuture countered with hard data:

Solar is already cheaper than gas—even without subsidies.
Fossil fuels receive billions in taxpayer subsidies, including $4 billion in FY 2019 and $388 million for waste coal alone.
PJM’s interconnection queue is clogged with 2,000 shovel-ready renewable projects waiting for approval—many for over a decade.
Renewables are predictable and scalable, especially with modern battery storage, unlike fracked gas which fails during peak demand.

PennFuture argues that lawmakers are ignoring market realities and public health costs—estimated at $11.1 billion from fossil fuel pollution—while clinging to outdated energy models.

📉 What’s at Stake
If RGGI is eliminated, Pennsylvania could lose its most significant tool for reducing carbon emissions, forfeiting millions in auction revenue earmarked for clean energy investments and community resilience. With renewables making up just 5% of the state’s energy mix, advocates warn that now is the time to accelerate—not retreat from—climate action.

Environmental groups are urging lawmakers to stop “picking winners and losers” and instead embrace a diversified, modern energy portfolio. As PennFuture puts it: “We need leadership that listens to market forces and promotes clean energy innovation… not just tech billionaires and fossil fuel companies.”

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Massive Lehigh Valley Town Center project awaits PennDOT’s OK

Town Center Render Collage — *A collection of renders for the Lehigh Valley Town Center project shown to the Lower Macungie Planning Commission.*

By Phil Gianficaro, Lehigh Valley News

LOWER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. — The planned Lehigh Valley Town Center is stuck in traffic.

The massive 64-acre, mixed-use land development project of the Jaindl Land Co. approved for Lower Macungie Township can’t fully speed ahead until roadway issues are resolved with PennDOT near the site at 361 Schantz Road and 4511 Cedarbrook Road.

“We don’t have any issues with PennDOT,” Jake Jaindl said Wednesday. “There are just some things we need to iron out.

“We’re still finalizing the access issues and the HOPs [Highway Occupancy Permits] with PennDOT, which has been a great collaborative partner with us. We’re looking for a great solution to mitigate the traffic issues.”

Luke Jaindl and his brother Adam discussed the Town Center project and other company-related topics during a taping of “Business Matters,” a 30-minute program hosted by Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce President Tony Iannelli, at WFMZ-TV studios.

The Town Center will include 550 apartment units across four six-story buildings, a 100-unit hotel, and 70,000 square feet of office space.

Also, 65,000 square feet of medical office space, a 12,500-square-foot grocery store, 170,000 square feet of retail space, a 20,000-square-foot restaurant, a parking garage, and a Topgolf facility.

Lower Macungie supervisors gave the project approval in August 2023, with groundbreaking eyed for early 2024.

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Before international summit: Most nations fumbling climate targets

President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement could make U.S. climate targets irrelevant. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Heather Richards reports in Politico’s Power Switch:

Two weeks before the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, one pattern among nations could prove the most revealing: Most can’t seem to hit their deadlines. Namely, more than 125 countries have missed the September date for filing new pollution-reduction targets ahead of next month’s United Nations conference, writes my colleague Sara Schonhardt.

Fewer than 70 nations out of 195 turned in their homework on time. Some climate diplomacy veterans blame the long shadow of President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened countries with punitive tariffs for supporting international climate action and has withdrawn the U.S. from the 10-year-old Paris climate accord.

Oddly enough, one country that submitted an aggressive new climate pledge ahead of schedule was the United States — under former President Joe Biden, who announced in December that the U.S. would slash its planet-warming pollution by 61 to 66 percent by 2035. But Trump’s description of climate change as a “hoax” concocted by “stupid people,” and his decisions to double down on fossil fuels, somewhat undermine that pledge’s credibility.

“The rest of the world knows they have to deal with Trump, and they’re trying to figure out, particularly in this [climate] sphere, how do you make progress when he’s driving so hard in the opposite direction of where everyone else wants to go,” John Podesta, Biden’s senior adviser for international climate policy, told Sara.

The practical considerations of rising energy demand, and energy costs spurring populist outbreaks across Europe, could also be dampening countries’ appetite to slash their fossil fuel emissions.“It’s not really surprising to me that countries are saying, you know, why would I put our country on the hook for some big and ambitious set of actions that would be hard on a good day,” said Jonathan Elkind, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and former Energy Department official during the Obama administration.“The real issue is can we sustain over time — and I mean over decades — attention and focus and creativity and capital, capital, capital,” Elkind said.

The Big Three climate polluters

Last month, the U.N. convened a climate gathering in New York aimed at catalyzing new pollution-cutting plans for 2035. Even with Trump urging countries to throw in the towel, more than 100 countries attended. Additionally, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Brazil have all submitted stronger climate targets in the lead-up to COP30, and the European Commission has announced that the EU will submit a plan before the summit commences on November 10.

Still, India, the world’s third-largest climate polluter behind China and the U.S., was a no-show in New York, and half of the Group of 20 — the largest economies, which account for three-quarters of global emissions — have yet to reveal new targets.

Last year, a report found that even if nations met their 2030 targets, carbon pollution would decrease by less than 3 percent compared to 2019. It needs to drop 43 percent, according to a U.N. panel of scientists.

Meanwhile, pledges that China announced in September, promising to stop releasing carbon emissions before 2060, are too low to prevent catastrophic climate impacts, analysts say. Coupled with the Trump administration’s antagonism, that means the Earth’s two largest climate polluters are leaving an enormous gap in the defense against a warming planet.

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Equinor sticking with offshore wind, but not as much

Equinor, the Norweigen gas giant, tells stockholders it is keeping its stake in Orsted and its Empire Wind turbines off the coast of New York, but new investments in clean energy are not likely.

Video report here

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What results when NY lawmakers order tougher energy standards that state regulators say are impossible to meet

A case before the state Supreme Court was nominally about the discretion of a state agency to delay promulgation of rules when an act of the legislature requires those rules. Of greater significance, though, is the nature of the required rulemaking and the arguments advanced by the DEC to defend its position that the rulemaking is “infeasible.”

By Gibbons attorneys Raymond Pomeroy II and Frederick A. McDonald, III

In Citizens Action of New York et al. v. Department of Environmental Conservation, a state Supreme Court in Albany County, New York, granted the petitioner’s request for a mandatory injunction and directed the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue regulations under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The case was nominally about the discretion of a state agency to delay promulgation of rules when those rules are required by an act of the legislature. Of greater significance though is the nature of the required rulemaking and the arguments advanced by DEC to defend its position that the rulemaking is “infeasible.” The case highlights a growing problem in New York State with respect to the development of renewable energy sources and transmission capacity. These problems are particularly relevant to building owners in New York City faced with compliance obligations under Local Law 97 (LL97).

In 2019, the New York State Legislature passed the CLCPA to address climate change and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). The CLCPA requires New York to achieve a 40 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and an 85 percent reduction by 2050, measured against the 1990 emissions levels. Crucial to reaching those reductions was the inclusion of specific goals for 6 gigawatts of solar power by 2025, 9 gigawatts of new offshore wind power by 2035, and 3 gigawatts of battery storage by 2030. As relevant to the litigation, the CLCPA requires that DEC promulgate regulations to achieve the mandated emissions reductions no later than four years after the enactment of the CLCPA (January 1, 2024).

The court held that DEC violated the mandates of the CLCPA by failing to promulgate regulations within the prescribed time frame. As the court recognized, 18 months had passed since the deadline lapsed. The court further rejected DEC’s argument that promulgating regulations would be “infeasible” because achieving the target emissions “would require imposing extraordinary and damaging costs upon New Yorkers.’” Indeed, as the court found, the Legislature did not empower DEC to choose whether to comply with the CLCPA, but rather created a mandate that DEC would promulgate necessary regulations within a specific timeframe. As part of its decision, the court set a deadline of February 6, 2026, for when DEC must promulgate the required regulations under the CLCPA. DEC is reviewing whether to appeal the decision.

Read the full article

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Trump and GOP Join Big Oil’s All-Out Push to Shut Down Climate Liability Efforts

Republican attorneys general, GOP lawmakers, industry groups, and the president himself are all maneuvering to foreclose the ability of cities and states to hold the fossil fuel industry liable for damages linked to climate change.

By Dana Drugmand, Inside Climate News

As efforts continue to hold some of the world’s largest fossil fuel corporations liable for destructive and deadly climate impacts, backlash from the politically powerful oil and gas industry and its allies in government is on the rise, bolstered by the Trump administration’s allegiance to fossil fuels.

From lobbying Congress for liability protection to suing states over their climate liability laws and lawsuits, attempts to shield Big Oil from potential liability and to shut down climate accountability initiatives are advancing on multiple fronts.

“The effort has escalated dramatically in the past six or seven months,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, an organization that advocates for holding fossil fuel companies accountable for selling products they knew were dangerously warming the planet.

Pushback to liability initiatives from fossil fuel interests is not new. But the political landscape has shifted dramatically this year as the second Trump administration works to reward loyalists and campaign donors, including fossil fuel interests.

The oil and gas industry spent $445 million during the last election cycle to influence President Donald Trump and Congress, including $96 million on Trump’s re-election campaign, according to the progressive advocacy group Climate Power.

“What has changed is that there is a new administration,” said Lisa Graves, founder and executive director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group. And the Trump administration, she said, “is continuing to defend the fossil fuel industry and assail anyone who dares try to hold them accountable.”

Over the past eight years, communities across the country have filed tobacco-style lawsuits targeting ExxonMobil and major players in the fossil fuel industry, seeking to recover damages for localized climate impacts or to force companies to cease greenwashing and other misleading behavior.

More than 30 of these lawsuits brought by municipal, tribal and state governments are working their way through the courts, and several are now closer than ever to reaching trial.

Read the full story

If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it. Try it free for a whole month

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