NFIB files amicus brief against Pennsylvania Regulation 7-559, joining RGGI
HARRISBURG, Pa. (June 6, 2022) – NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case Bowfin Keycon Holdings, LLC, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection at the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. NFIB’s amicus brief challenges Regulation 7-559, which authorized Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). NFIB’s brief argues that certain RGGI requirements represent an unconstitutional tax, the RGGI itself is an unlawful interstate compact, and joining the RGGI will have detrimental impacts for Pennsylvania’s businesses and consumers.
“The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will impose significant new energy costs throughout the Commonwealth,” said Karen Harned, Executive Director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “Joining the RGGI will disproportionately affect small businesses at a time when small businesses are managing uncertain economic conditions, including rising inflation. Additional regulations on small businesses, like the RGGI, will further deter the small business recovery.”
“Governor Wolf and his team of unelected bureaucrats do not have the authority to impose a tax under the constitution,” said Greg Moreland, NFIB Pennsylvania State Director. “Every other state that has joined the RGGI has obtained legislative approval because they recognize the General Assembly controls the purse strings, not the executive branch.”
The RGGI is an initiative of 11 New England and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capping and reducing CO2 emissions from electric power plants. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued an order placing a stay on the entrance into RGGI, however, the stay expired in April and cleared the path for the regulation to be published and implemented.
NFIB Pennsylvania Assistant Director Melissa Morgan recently testified before a joint hearing of the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources & Energy and Community Recreational & Economic Development committees on the negative economic impacts of the RGGI.
The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
