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Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the likely Democratic candidate for governor, has decided he will appease environmental activists after all, as his office has approved a rule to allow Pennsylvania to join the job-killing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
This marks a stunning reversal, since only six weeks ago he broke with Gov. Tom Wolf, who engineered Pennsylvania’s entry into the multi-state cap-and-trade carbon scheme, by saying that he had significant reservations about the plan.
Former mayor and congressman Lou Barletta, the leading Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, today issued the following statement:
“The pressure from environmental radicals was too much for Josh Shapiro and he just gave us a glimpse into how he would act if he were governor. He says one thing but does another. He knew he would generate headlines by saying he opposed RGGI, but then later gave it the green light, giving the environmental extremists what they want at the expense of hard-working Pennsylvanians. With this 180-degree turn, Shapiro proved once again that he is a typical politician who simply can’t be trusted to keep his word.
“When I’m governor, I will remove Pennsylvania from the RGGI. It punishes employers in the energy industry and will cost working people their jobs. It will increase fuel bills on everyone, which hits lower-income people the hardest. And it wouldn’t even improve air quality because it just exports Pennsylvania’s energy production to nearby states which aren’t part of RGGI. It’s a bad deal all around, and people can trust me when I say that I will get Pennsylvania out of it.”
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