Pa. emission control draft plan released

Trailing 37 other states that have done so already, Pennsylvania yesterday released a draft plan to address climate change.

It was hailed by environmental groups as a big step forward, by industry groups as a potential roadblock for business, and by the head of an electric-power-generation organization as "a dream world."

The plan's goal is "definitely ambitious," said Jessica Shipley, a policy analyst for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

It recommends reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to levels that are 30 percent below year 2000 levels, and to do it by 2020.

More than two dozen other states have targets, mostly impossible to compare because their percentages and target years are so different.

New Jersey, for example, has set a goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The advisory committee that devised the plan came up with 52 recommendations spanning virtually every sector of the state - its power plants, homes and offices, transportation network, land use, industry, waste handling, farms, and forests.

The most significant reductions, according to the plan, would come from energy generation plus homes and commercial buildings. Millions of tons of emissions could be saved by making buildings - and their lighting systems - more energy-efficient.

Like many states, Pennsylvania could institute "pay as you drive" insurance, giving lower rates to people who drive less. Another recommendation is to reduce speed limits to 55 miles per hour on major highways.

But the plan is merely a draft, and its measures are recommendations that would require legislative or executive action. The public has 30 days to comment.

"The real work will begin after the final plan is issued," said Nathan Willcox, energy and clean-air advocate with PennEnvironment.

The report, mandated by 2008 legislation, was developed by a 21-member committee that includes representatives of government; environmental groups; and the energy, solar, coal, mining, and steel industries.

Jan Jarrett, president of the nonprofit advocacy group PennFuture and a committee member, said some battles were hard-fought. The report lists voting results on each measure, and where dissent occurred the usual lineup was environmentalists and government (13) vs. industry (8).

Stephanie Catarino Wissman, director of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, said the federal government should be addressing the problem. "If this would become a mandate . . . this could economically disadvantage Pennsylvania," she said.

George Ellis, president of the Pennsylvania Coal Association, said the committee was supposed to do a detailed economic analysis of the actions, but that was "glossed over."

Overall, the report concluded that implementing the recommendations would save $11.7 billion and create 65,000 full-time jobs.

But Douglas L. Biden, president of the Electric Power Generating Association, said that whenever he hears such assertions, "my antennae start to go up. . . . It's like saying there's a free lunch, when we know there isn't."

Another energy committee member, State Sen. Andrew Dinniman (D., Chester and Montgomery), praised the committee and the report.

"It states in clear, summary form what the problems are and what the solutions are," he said. "Now it's up to us in the legislature to produce the necessary legislation."