Gov. Corbett, Tom Wolf share stage for 1st time

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- Gov. Corbett and Wolf exchanged smiles and handshakes on Wednesday night.

Both were featured speakers at the Pennsylvania Environmental Council dinner in Center City.

It's the first time the two have appeared in the same place since the campaign got underway.

"It's the first time we have shared the stage together, it's different," said Wolf.

Action News asked Gov. Corbett if the face-to-face meeting signified the start of the battle for the governorship

"It's been game on since January, between Mr. Wolf and the other candidates, they spent $30 million beating up on me, saying what they would do, now we need to see the details are," he said.

With environmental policy at the forefront, Wolf wasted no time outlining his sustainable energy plan comprised of seven proposals.

He received applause when he said this:

"Pennsylvania will join, under the right circumstances, and I emphasis under the right circumstances, the regional greenhouse gas initiative," said Wolf.

President Obama announced a plan last week to address global warming. He wants a 30 percent reduction in the nation's carbon dioxide emissions over 25 years.

Gov. Corbett says Pennsylvania is already moving in the right direction. Greenhouse gas emissions are falling even as industrial growth is growing.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two candidates is their view on taxing oil and gas energy.

Gov. Corbett says the energy companies are paying their share through impact fees and corporate taxes.

However Wolf wants to implement a new five percent severance tax on natural gas extraction and use that money to make up for deficits in the state's budget.

"I want to use it to fund things like schools. It could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to do good things for Pennsylvania that we can't do right now," he said.

The environment is one major topic but so is the state budget.

The state of Pennsylvania has a deficit upwards of $1 billion and the legislature has until June 30th to pass a budget.