The Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on February 3 on the impact of greenhouse gas cap-and-trade programs on coal waste and co-generation power generators.

Individuals and groups expected to present testimony include DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell, Vince Brisini, Director of Environmental Affairs at Olympus Power, LLC and representatives of other key energy and environmental organizations.

[In October, Gov. Wolf issued an executive order directing DEP to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative cap-and-invest program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Click Here for more.

[Last November, Senate and House Republicans announced legislation to take away DEP’s authority to adopt any program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions-- Senate Bill 950 (Pittman-R-Indiana) and House Bill 2025 (Struzzi-R-Indiana). Click Here for more.]

Pennsylvania has more than 770 coal refuse piles and 12 coal refuse to energy plants. Modern cogeneration plants have the ability to burn waste from early coal production at high temperatures in order to produce power.

In addition to producing cleaner energy, these plants also account for the environmentally safe elimination of millions of tons of waste coal each year. To date, thousands of acres of abandoned waste coal piles have already been reclaimed-- all “at no cost to taxpayers.”

[Actually, in 2016, the General Assembly created a state Coal Refuse Reclamation Tax Credit to provide $7.5 million a year to subsidize coal waste-to-energy generators. That amount increased to $10 million in 2017.  In 2019, the amount was doubled to $20 million annually and the program was extended to 2036.

[In October, a similar federal tax credit proposal was introduced by Congressmen Meuser and Cartwright. Click Here for more.]

The hearing will be held in Room 8E-A East Wing of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg starting at 9:00 a.m.

Rep. Parke Wentling (R-Mercer) serves as Chair of the Joint Conservation Committee.

For more information, visit the Joint Conservation Committee website, call 717-787-7570,  Like them on Facebook or Follow them on Twitter.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates from the Committee.

(Photo: An example of coal waste reclamation from ARIPPA.)

Resource:

Anthracite Region Independent Power Producers Association (ARIPPA)

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[Posted: January 11, 2020]

1/13/2020