HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania’s acting Department of Environmental Protection secretary was in the hot seat for more than two hours, as budget hearings continue in the Capitol. Several questions focused on a controversial carbon cap-and-trade program.
Former Philadelphia Managing Director, now acting DEP secretary, Rich Negrin testified before a state Senate committee that he and his staff are working to speed up Pennsylvania’s notoriously slow permitting and inspections process, but he says it’s going to take time to rebuild staffing where it needs to be.
“It took many years … for us to kind of get here, to this level. We're not going to fix it overnight. We're not going to fix it in one budget,” he said.
Senators also pressed Negrin on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI — a partnership with several other states that essentially charges fossil fuel power plants based on the amount of carbon they emit to reinvest in clean energy and other programs.
“The folks who put carbon into the atmosphere pay into it through the carbon pricing mechanism. And those dollars are utilized to help reduce the emissions and to improve the environment,” he said.
RGGI has been a point of contention since Gov. Tom Wolf bypassed the legislature to enter into the multi-state partnership a year ago.
Negrin says an environmental advocate and a labor official who backs natural gas and pipelines will lead a newly formed RGGI work group.
“How we can get to the overriding goals, which we’re all behind, regardless of what side of the aisle you are on: keeping people safe and taking care of people's health and well-being.”
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Unable to give direct answers to questions about the partnership, Negrin at times frustrated senators. However, Republican appropriations chair Scott Martin says he’s open to discussion of alternatives to RGGI.
“If there's a better way to do it — that's not going to put higher energy costs on a state that desperately needs to grow economically, or potentially weaken our grid — we'd love to work with you and your team and your work group on that,” Martin said.
Negrin said they welcome further discussion on what he calls one part of the Shapiro administration’s larger goal of growing the economy and protecting the environment.
“You heard from the governor during the budget speech,” Negrin told senators. “He rejects the notion that it's a zero-sum game, the false choice between the environment and the economy.”