Pennsylvania's Energy Affordability Agenda

Pennsylvania's Energy Prices Are Rising Fast — and PA Residents Are Paying the Price

Pennsylvania is in an energy crisis. Across the Commonwealth, people are feeling the impacts every day in rising home energy costs and decreased reliability. 

Pennsylvanians are paying more every month for the electricity they depend on, while state leaders continue to delay urgently needed reforms. The result of political paralysis in Harrisburg is that working families are being squeezed harder—not only by their electric bills, but by the ripple effects that raise the price of everything from groceries to housing. And prices will only continue to rise unless the crisis is effectively addressed. 

We must be clear-eyed about how we got here. This crisis is caused by: 

• Chronic overreliance on fracked gas and other dirty fossil fuels;
• Failure to prepare for the inevitable retirement of coal plants, despite years of notice;
• A powerful fossil fuel industry that bought and paid for state policies that favor coal, oil, and gas.
• A grid operator that prioritized costly fossil fuel projects over less expensive clean energy projects and has responded to energy demands with severe price increases on ratepayers.

Pennsylvania’s outdated pro-fossil fuel policy is not only hitting people’s wallets. Pennsylvania is also losing out on the next generation of energy infrastructure—from solar and storage to transmission—to neighboring states. Even large fossil-fuel-producing states like Texas are successfully adding renewable energy to the mix and seeing costs go down. Overreliance on fossil fuels is having other devastating consequences too - in recent cold weather events, over 70 percent of Pennsylvania’s gas plants were not able to run as expected, causing grid instability and significant price increases (NRDC, 2023). 

This is a pivotal moment. Despite what oil and gas CEOs and their allies say, more fracked gas, increased pipeline infrastructure, and leaving the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative are not solutions. 

Pennsylvania can either cling to a fossil fuel-dominated past that is growing more expensive and less reliable—or chart a bold new path that prioritizes tested, affordable clean energy solutions that put residents first, protect working families from skyrocketing energy bills, and build a more affordable future for everyone. 

The clean energy economy is not a threat. It’s an opportunity—for jobs, investment, lower costs, and healthier communities. 

The time to act is now.