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Greenhouse gas pact with China risks coal jobs in Pennsylvania

President Barack Obama’s climate change agreement with China is a bad deal for Pennsylvania that will cost jobs and increase electricity prices for consumers, said Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.

In its agreement last week with the United States — which isn't legally binding — China pledged to halt the increase in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The United States said it would aim to make its 2025 emissions between 26 and 28 percent lower than they were in 2005, faster than previous goals.

“There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other,” President Obama said at a United Nations meeting on climate change in September, “and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.”

China emits a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, the United States, 15 percent.

“Under this pact, Pennsylvanians will be faced with higher energy costs and jobs losses now, in exchange for the status quo and vague promises of future action by the Chinese,” Toomey said in an email Friday.

The coal industry accounts for more than 35,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.

Industry officials said it’s not clear how Obama’s new deal differs from earlier directives by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce greenhouse gases, which include targets to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.

What’s clearer is that China, under the agreement, will be able to continue building coal power plants for another 15 years.

Source: New Castle News