Feb 23, 2016 2 min read

I thank Gov. Tom Wolf for realizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of the Clean Power Plan is in no way a rejection of its content. It is simply a technical reaction to lawsuits brought against the Environmental Protection Agency by some states. After all, it was the Supreme Court in 2007 that forced the EPA to consider regulating carbon dioxide in Massachusetts vs. EPA. States were suing the EPA to force it to do something about climate change.

Since then, 2010, 2014 and 2015 were all recorded as the hottest years on record. You will notice that John Pippy’s Feb. 21 column that appeared in the Observer-Reporter doesn’t mention the effects of carbon dioxide pollution or the soot and smog that come with it.

He mentions many Pennsylvania electric companies want Wolf to delay the Clean Power Plan as long as possible. Since when do we wait for companies to regulate themselves? Litigation delayed the implementation of lead limits in gasoline in the mid-1970s by two years, even though public health advocates have been warning against lead poisoning for almost all of modern history. Rarely does any industry embrace regulation, although it is heartening to see FirstEnergy boasting about carbon reductions within their “The Switch is On” campaign.

I doubt even the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, the organization Pippy represents, would be willing to say that the coal industry, with its 200-plus year history in Pennsylvania, has left the state unscathed. The most recent generation unit at a standard coal plant in Pennsylvania is 36 years old. It is time the coal industry make concessions to the public and its health, rather than the other way around. Climate change is very real and there are energy options beyond coal.

Russell Zerbo

Philadelphia

Zerbo is the advocacy coordinator for the Clean Air Council.