We join state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, in feeling disappointment in the Shapiro administration’s decision to appeal a court ruling that Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is unconstitutional.

The court ruled correctly that a policy as wide-ranging and with as much impact on the economy and very lives of Pennsylvanians needed to be pursued through the legislative process.

As we have frequently noted, when these questions touch a myriad of issues, the legislative process requires transparent public debate about the underlying issues and necessitates compromise.

These are the strengths of our system, not flaws.

The approach taken by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf — and to which Gov. Josh Shapiro now concurs — is, as Yaw put it in his reaction in Friday’s Sun-Gazette, part of a “pattern of reckless disregard for the Constitution and the residents of this Commonwealth.”

Yaw is further correct to call for the administration to not only abandon this appeal but to pursue “commonsense, environmentally responsible energy policy that recognizes and champions Pennsylvania as an energy producer.”

Policies that regulate and safeguard the production of energy while still grounded in the clear reality that natural gas production is part of the immediate solution to providing businesses and families with affordable, reliable energy are the appropriate course. We are confident that the issues, if addressed transparently and by the duly elected legislature of our state, will reach that determination.

Continuing to pursue a multi-state compact that freezes out our most direct representation does not serve the balanced interests of Pennsylvanians but only the extremism of alarmists.

We hope the government will heed our senator’s call for the more rational, balanced approach.