PA budget deal kills RGGI, raises electric costs and hurts clean energy
Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania Executive Director Molly Parzen has issued the following statement in response to passage of the Pennsylvania state budget, which prevents our participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and locks in higher electricity prices for working families across Pennsylvania:
The state budget Governor Shapiro announced today represents a devastating, self-inflicted setback in addressing affordability, clean energy and pollution by walking away from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative without establishing an alternative approach.
For years, Senate Republicans have fought to prevent Pennsylvania from joining RGGI to protect the record profits of oil and gas billionaires. They were willing to hold Pennsylvanians hostage in order to achieve this goal, holding up critically needed funding for social services and education. And when asked repeatedly, over many years, to provide their own policy solutions to our energy and affordability crisis, Senate Republicans have remained silent.
Pennsylvanians should not have to choose between critical social services and lower energy bills — and Governor Shapiro and legislative Democrats should have held the line and rejected that false choice. Their capitulation means that Pennsylvanians will now be robbed of more than $1 billion annually to lower electricity prices through investments in clean energy.
This decision is even more stunning as it comes a week after Democrats across the nation, including in New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia, achieved record electoral victories by promising to combat skyrocketing energy costs. Policies like an end to utility rate hikes in New Jersey and a commitment to rejoin RGGI in Virginia resonated powerfully with voters.
Rather than using these victories as momentum for ongoing negotiations, Governor Shapiro surrendered our most powerful tool to lower energy costs.
We appreciate that House Democrats successfully secured continued funding for the Solar for Schools program, a win environmental and labor groups have worked hard for over the last few years. Unfortunately, this win does not come close to providing the level or breadth of annual clean energy investments Pennsylvania would have secured from RGGI.
Moving forward, Pennsylvania’s working families deserve a laser-like focus on implementing common sense solutions for a clean energy agenda that lowers their electric bills. As Governor Shapiro himself has said about the transition to clean energy, “Doing nothing is not an option.”
We look forward to working with leaders in Harrisburg on building the clean energy future we know Pennsylvanians deserve and support. We cannot afford to let this failure be the final word on clean energy policy.
Other environmental Groups agreed with Parzen’s assessment:
PEC Statement on RGGI Reversal – PECPA
