Pennsylvania's Supreme Court likely to have split decision regarding power plant owners paying for emissions

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court justices are likely to have split opinions on whether power plant owners must pay for their planet-warming emissions.

On Wednesday, the state’s highest court listened to arguments on whether a lower court was right last summer to halt Pennsylvania's participation in a multistate consortium that imposes a price and declining cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

But the justices repeatedly turned the conversation to the underlying legal question still being considered by the lower court: whether former Gov. Tom Wolf usurped the Legislature’s constitutional authority to approve any form of taxation.

In that dispute, Republican lawmakers contend the carbon-trading plan is an unconstitutional tax because it lacks legislative approval; state lawyers contend it is a fee that a state agency has the authority to impose to operate a program.