Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has wavered on climate issues that are balmy on the campaign trail — balancing on the verge of fracking and neglecting to take a position on the state’s cap-and-trade program for the energy sector. But on one issue he was firm: By 2030, 30% of the energy sold in Pennsylvania will come from renewable sources, up from 8% now, he promised.
“Pennsylvania’s steps forward must ensure that we remain an energy hub while protecting important parts of our economy and leaving no Pennsylvanian behind,” he said. campaign website he said, adding that the governor-elect plans to “work with stakeholders, including those on the other side of the aisle,” to accomplish that.
But in the year since Shapiro was sworn in, his office has provided no update on the administration’s efforts to reach the 30% goal.
This also applies to her position on the bill in parliament — HB1467 — which would update the state’s energy standards to require 30% of energy sales to come from renewable sources. Some members of the administration have signaled support — at a Dec. 11 House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee hearing, David Althoff, director of the Energy Programs Office in the Department of Environmental Protection he said believed the Shapiro administration supported the bill.
This support will be crucial to getting the proposed legislation through a divided parliament, observers said Capital & Main. But Shapiro himself has been quiet for the past year.
“Governor Shapiro remains focused on combating climate change, reducing emissions, and protecting public health while creating jobs and protecting consumers,” Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder said in a statement to Capital & Main. “The Shapiro Administration is taking action every day to preserve and protect our environment and defend Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air and clean water.”
Spokesmen the “30 by 30” promise second largest Natural gas producing states continue to believe that updating spotless energy standards is the step lawmakers must take to address the urgency of the climate crisis, compete with other states and meet growing market demand for renewable energy.
The Keystone State ranked 50th among states in percentage growth in total solar, wind and geothermal energy production since 2013, according to data from the nonprofit PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center announced in October. In the U.S., the solar industry grew 12-fold over the past decade, but in Pennsylvania it grew only three-fold, the group said. In 2021, solar energy accounted for less than 1% of electricity generated in Pennsylvania, while natural gas was more than half.
During the same period, other states have seen their renewable energy economies boom; for example, Virginia’s renewable energy sector has grown more than 300-fold, according to PennEnvironment data analysis found. That growth was boosted nationwide last year by passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping federal bill that introduced an estimated $370 billion to expand the green energy economy. That included incentives to build renewable energy sources, improve the energy efficiency of buildings, manufacture electric vehicles and more. States are lining up to collect that money through grant programs or by enacting their own incentives, which can be passed on to the feds.
This is a crucial time for states to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act or risk being left behind, said Sharon Pillar, founder and executive director of the Pennsylvania Solar Center, a nonprofit solar advocacy group. “Investors are going to places that have a ‘sweetener on top’ of federal incentives,” Pillar said. “They’ll go to New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia or New York because they have state incentives that are better than ours.”
In June, Democratic Party Representative Danielle Friel Otten of Chester County, northwest of Philadelphia, introduced HB1467what exactly would that do.
The bill would update the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS), a set of goals that guide renewable energy sales in the state. Almost half of its fraction signed the bill; accompanying legal act is being considered in the Senate, where more than half of the Democrats have signed it.
Pennsylvania’s AEPS are goals that have guided green energy development in the state for the past two decades. These goals represent the percentage of electricity that must come from alternative sources in the generation that utilities sell to customers each year, at levels that have increased year over year from 2007 to 2021. These tiers are divided into two tiers of energy sources. Tier 1 includes wind, hydropower with minimal impact to water systems, geothermal, and solar. Tier 2 includes more polluting sources, such as coal waste and enormous hydropower.
By 2021, AEPS mandates that 18% of electricity sold to customers must come from alternative or renewable sources — 8% from Tier 1, of which 0.5% must come from in-state solar plants, and 10% from Tier 2. (Otten’s bill would mandate that all 30% of renewable energy sold by 2030 come from Tier 1 sources. It makes no mention of Tier 2 sources at all.)
It does not reflect the size of the renewable energy sector in the state or the amount of energy generated in the state; numbers are lower. Instead, the target reflects a percentage of energy sales to consumers. Under AEPS, utilities buy credits from renewable energy suppliers — ranging in size from the grid to individual home rooftops — that reflect a percentage of their total electricity sales required by AEPS. That energy can come from out of state — and in fact, in 2022, 54.1% did, according to the PJM network operator.
Still, Pillar said, AEPS offers renewable energy developers a funding stream: “The truth that payments from utilities that have a legal obligation to purchase renewable energy provide them with the security they need to make the decision to locate operations in Pennsylvania,” she argued.
Nick Cohen, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Philadelphia-based solar developer Doral Renewables, agreed. “You want to go to a state that’s renewable-friendly; AEPS is one way to wave a flag and say, ‘We’re renewable-friendly,’” he said. “AEPS is a good idea because it’s been proven to work in the past.” But even if AEPS didn’t exist, the market forces are enough for him to know he’d always have a customer in Pennsylvania, no matter what.
“My likely buyers are probably not going to be utilities, but corporations,” he said, noting that consumer concerns about carbon footprints and looming federal climate disclosure regulations are driving demand from enormous companies to power their operations with renewable energy.
When they were created in 2004, AEPS were seen as radical, recalled Rob Altenburg, senior director of energy and climate at the nonprofit advocacy group PennFuture. At the time, Altenburg was working for the state Department of Environmental Protection. “Back then, getting to 0.5 percent solar seemed like a real challenge,” he said.
Over the years, renewable energy prices have plummeted while efficiency has improved, and Altenburg and other environmentalists have watched as states surrounding Pennsylvania have updated their renewable energy goals to be more ambitious—and more in line with what the climate crisis demands. To the south, Maryland is working to Target 50% renewable energy by 2030; New York, north, toward 70% by 2030.
But Pennsylvania has stalled, and the value of renewable energy credits through AEPS has fallen, as enough renewable energy producers have come online to meet the needs of utilities within the state’s modest requirements, Solar Center’s Pillar said. Lawmakers — including Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat from Bucks County, north of Philadelphia — have tried to update guidelines In the past, bills have died in committees.
Until last year, both chambers’ Environmental Resources and Energy Committees were led by Republican chairmen who were devoted to the fossil fuel industry, but the House Democrats’ slim majorities after the 2022 elections changed that math. In the past, trade groups like Marcellus Shale Coalitionwhich represents companies involved in fracking and Industrial Energy Users in Pennsylvaniarepresenting the producers, opposed these standards.
IN Hearing on December 11 House of Representatives Energy Committee, David N. Taylor, President and CEO, Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, he called the program “a threat to American national security” and “a disgrace to workers’ and human rights.”
Otten told Capital & Main that such criticisms consist of “misinformation and exaggeration.” An analysis of the bill shared with Capital & Main also listed several groups supporting the legislation, including the nonprofit environmental group Clean Water Action; PennEnvironment, author of a study that found the state is lagging in renewable energy development; and the Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association.
But the fate of AEPS remains uncertain, even if Otten’s bill passes the House of Representatives, where her party has a majority, and goes to the Republican-majority Senate, where the Energy Committee is led by Fossil fuel genial Senator Gene Yaw, Republican from Lycoming County in north-central Pennsylvania.
Otten credits Shapiro’s support for the “30-by-30” emissions standard during the campaign with giving the bill the initial push it needs. And Altenburg predicted the governor’s support could prove indispensable to negotiating a Senate vote.
“I think that’s the most important thing we’re looking at this year,” Altenburg said. “Is the governor using his political capital to get this going?”
“What does the contract that would make this possible look like?”
Audrey Carleton is a reporter for Capital & Main, where this story first appeared.
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