Common Sense Weekly

Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.



Gov. Shapiro Introduces New Energy Tax Proposal

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was in Scranton on Wednesday to announce a new energy proposal called the Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Initiative, or “PACER”.

Under the plan, the Department of Environmental Protection would set a cap for the amount of carbon that Pennsylvania’s power plants can produce and release into the air.

To produce any carbon, the power plants would need to purchase credits from the Commonwealth to offset the pollution they emit.....

The proposal has faced opposition from Republican Pennsylvania lawmakers. Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) compared Shapiro’s proposal to ones that cause blackouts and high energy prices in states such as California and Washington.



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Shapiro’s Energy Tax Plan Called a ‘Disastrous’ Gift to Ohio, West Virginia

If Gov. Josh Shapiro thought his replacement carbon tax plan would assuage his critics, he dramatically miscalculated.

After laying out his proposal for a Pennsylvania-specific version

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of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative on Wednesday, Shapiro argued doing nothing is not an option.

Opponents of his plans, though, call the governor’s ideas a bigger threat than inaction.

One part, the Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Act (PACER), would cap carbon emissions from power plants and require companies to buy carbon offsets. The second part, the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard (PRESS), would require 35% of the state’s electricity to come from clean sources, including nuclear.

The Commonwealth Foundation calls the proposed policy “a massive new tax.”

“With these disastrous new PACER and PRESS programs, Governor Shapiro is piling on even more financial pain for working Pennsylvanians at a time when they can least afford it,” Commonwealth Foundation Senior Manager of Energy Policy André Béliveau said in a press release. “Shapiro is actively breaking his campaign promises to avoid tax increases by saddling the state with strict new emissions limits that will inevitably raise consumer costs and have a chilling effect on our natural gas industry, which is leading in reducing carbon emissions.”



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Pennsylvanians Reject the Left's Radical Green Agenda

Energy affordability remains a top priority for Pennsylvania voters leading up to the November elections, according to a new survey from the Commonwealth Foundation

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In a poll of 800 registered voters conducted between February 28 and March 6, more than 4 in 5 respondents (81%) were concerned about the future availability of affordable energy in the United States, while just shy of the same number (79%) shared the same concern in the Commonwealth.

While the Biden administration has touted its efforts in reducing inflation and creating jobs, the Keystone State respondents expressed their concerns about kitchen-table issues such as their families’ energy needs.

Eighty percent of those surveyed said that their household energy bills have increased over the past two years, while 15% indicated that they had remained the same. Just one percent or 11 out of 800 stated that their energy bill had decreased.



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Gov. Shapiro Ignores PA's Looming Deficit

Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to spend $3.5 billion of Pennsylvania’s surplus to stabilize transit systems, fund a court-mandated K-12 education overhaul, and expand the state’s economic development programs as part of his second budget proposal.

The state can afford such an expense. It has built up roughly $14 billion in financial reserves over the past four years, thanks to stimulus dollars and strong tax returns.

But if Pennsylvania had to rely solely on the tax revenue the Shapiro administration projects to bring in over the next few years, it wouldn’t be able to cover the tab.

That’s because Pennsylvania has a structural deficit. The state’s annual costs, such as paying public servants and providing health care to people who can’t afford it, consistently exceed

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the state’s annual tax revenue.



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Shapiro's Reckless Budget

Between new taxes and more spending programs, Gov. Shapiro's budget is bound to make Pennsylvania less economically competitive. Pennsylvanians want a budget that cuts spending and lowers costs for everyone while attracting new businesses and job creators. Send a message now: Tell Gov. Shapiro we need a fiscally responsible budget.

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