Gov. Tom Wolf looks to set price, caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants

HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf is taking a big step in his effort to fight climate change in the nation’s fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Wolf, a Democrat, on Thursday ordered his administration to start working on regulations to bring Pennsylvania into a nine-state consortium that sets a price and caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a consortium of northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, could face pushback from the Republican-controlled Legislature or the state’s influential coal and natural gas industries.

Pennsylvania is the nation’s No. 3 electric power state and its energy sector is its largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It’s dozens of power plants fueled by coal, oil and natural gas could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the state annually under the program.