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Beyond the governor's address, a special session is simply an artifice to create a sense of importance or urgency about an issue. The fact that a special session convenes doesn't guarantee any laws will result from it.
This is the third special session in five years, and like the two predecessors dealing with property tax reform, it will be held at the same time as the regular session. This means the presiding officers of the House and Senate can gavel in the special session to take care of some business and then move right over to the calendar for the regular session.
Rendell is still intent on winning passage for his proposed Energy Independence Fund, an $850 million bond issue to provide state grants and loans for projects to promote renewable energy and conservation. The conservation piece involves offering consumers financial incentives to install solar panels and replace outdated home appliances. Rendell's proposal calls for levying a charge on electricity users to help pay for some of the costs.
Lawmakers will have a chance to offer their own energy bills printed on the green-toned paper reserved for special sessions.
Senate Republicans have already thrown down the gauntlet introducing a bill to create a less costly program and avoid any hint of a tax, fee or charge on consumers.
The "Alternative Energy Investment Act" would earmark $60 million annually to underwrite tax credits for alternative energy projects, rebates for consumer purchases and a smaller bond issue.
The sponsors, Sens. Mary Joe White, R-Venango, and Robert Tomlinson, R-Bucks, said they plan to tap unspecified existing revenues to pay for these programs, including possibly an existing state gross receipts tax on electricity.
The outcome of this debate has major implications for Northeastern Pennsylvania, where plans to build clean coal plants, wind power projects and ethanol plants are in fruition.
As lawmakers debate how to provide energy at cheaper prices, they also have one eye cast ahead to 2010 and 2011 when rate caps in place for the past decade expire for many electric utilities, including Allentown-based PPL Corp.
"I want to make sure the energy bills are minimized from the impact of the caps coming off," said Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Avoca.
Young drivers
The House Transportation Committee gave approval last week to a bill of considerable interest to parents of teen drivers. The measure by Rep. Kathy Watson, R-Bucks, would allow a driver with a junior license to have only one passenger under age 18 in the vehicle. Under the bill, parents would have the right to grant permission for a teen driver to transport additional siblings or relatives who live in the same household.
Robert Swift is Harrisburg bureau chief for Times-Shamrock newspapers. He can be reached via e-mail at rswift@timesshamrock.com.
