RGGI exit ends Pennsylvania’s only major climate policy

Pennsylvania has quit the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, leaving the fourth-highest-emitting state with no significant climate policy.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said he was focused on “cutting costs” when he signed a budget deal Wednesday that exits the Northeast’s cap-and-trade system. The deal became law just hours after lawmakers unveiled it and rushed it through the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate.

Shapiro is now the first governor of any party to sign a law quitting RGGI, which covers power plant emissions from almost a dozen states. That fact landed like a thunderclap on the left, where Shapiro is viewed as an influential Democratic voice and a likely presidential contender.

Climate hawks reacted with disbelief and a sense of betrayal, noting that Shapiro is cutting against even the moderate Democrats who won the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey this month while supporting the cap-and-trade system.