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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 2, 2023 05:45 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Christopher M. Rabb |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Establishing a per-ton fee on greenhouse gas emissions for PA’s biggest corporate polluters |
| The time has come to make a big investment in the future of this Commonwealth. Reducing carbon emissions is imperative to ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens. The amazing thing is that we can simultaneously create a pathway for clean energy initiatives that will grow jobs and help diversify the economy, thereby making Pennsylvania a leader in green technology. This can be done by placing a reasonable per-ton fee on carbon emissions and using that revenue to provide assistance to low-income customers, support the transition of schools and businesses to more efficient and clean energy, provide job training to workers displaced from fossil fuel jobs, and invest in growing the green energy workforce. The most recent data shows that the total statewide gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for Pennsylvania is 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e). That’s equivalent to every one of Pennsylvania’s 13 million residents — adult and child — getting their very own school bus full of pollution every year! Over a third of these toxic emissions come from industry and electricity production, like coal, petroleum, and fracked gas. So, this proposed fee would be imposed on all producers who emit greenhouse gases, whether that pollution comes from a well, mine or reactor, to allow reinvestment in the reduction of GHG emissions. This is not a partisan issue; it’s not even a bipartisan issue. It’s a nonpartisan issue. We are all inhabitants of this planet and we are all in this together. The scientific community considers GHGs emitted by humans to be the primary cause of climate change. In economic terms, the emission of GHGs is a negative externality – meaning it is a cost suffered by a third party not involved in an economic transaction. The most effective way to stem a negative externality is to internalize it by taxing it. This proposed legislation (formerly HB 2907) doesn’t choose winners or losers. Instead, it lets the marketplace decide, which is why economists agree that such a fee is the best way to address climate change. If you believe the corporations, who are Pennsylvania’s biggest polluters, should pay their fair share, please cosponsor this forthcoming bill! |