The Commonwealth Foundation’s newly released energy policy platform, EnergyVisionPA.org, endorses eight guiding principles to advance market-driven energy policies and five policy solutions for Pennsylvania lawmakers.
“America is at a critical crossroads for our energy future,” said André Béliveau, senior manager of energy policy at the Commonwealth Foundation and author of the energy policy platform. “Our policy decisions today will determine whether we have a future of energy abundance or scarcity, reliability or unreliability, and affordability or costliness.”
Pennsylvania, the largest power exporter and the second-largest natural gas producer in the nation, has an energy sector that contributes $75 billion annually in the state and employs nearly half a million people in the commonwealth, Béliveau said.
The state must advance American energy abundance and maintain its place as one of America’s leading energy-producing states, he reiterates in “A New Vision for Energy: Pennsylvania Leading the Way for American Energy Security and Prosperity,” which the foundation released Sept. 12.
The foundation’s platform, said Béliveau, presents a clear vision to drive energy policy in all 50 States — with Pennsylvania as the tip of the spear.
“Policymakers must promote energy abundance and prioritize reliable and affordable energy — putting families and businesses first in our energy policy initiatives,” he said. “We must ensure common-sense management and responsible environmental stewardship protect our environment, not radical policies that seek degrowth or energy poverty.”
The eight guiding principles supported by the Commonwealth Foundation are: A People-First Approach to Energy Policy; Responsible Environmental Stewardship and Conservation; One-Hundred-Percent Energy Abundance Over Net-Zero; Prioritizing Electric Grid Reliability and Affordability; Market-Driven Solutions, Not Handouts or Subsidies; Opposing Carbon Taxes; Robust Federalism for American Energy Security; and Pro-Energy Regulatory and Permitting Reform.
For Pennsylvania policymakers, the foundation’s platform also includes five “calls to action.”
“We encourage Pennsylvania lawmakers to oppose Gov. Josh Shapiro’s latest energy policy proposals and craft legislation that establishes grid reliability metrics into law and engage in vigorous permitting reform so energy and environmental projects may flourish in the Keystone State,” said Béliveau, outlining a few of them.
Specifically, the Pennsylvania General Assembly must reject Shapiro’s proposed Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Act (PACER) and the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard, known as PRESS.
Lawmakers must also prevent the commonwealth from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) or imposing any other carbon tax schemes, according to the foundation’s platform.
At the same time, state lawmakers also must pass legislation to create an energy source-neutral standard of grid reliability and adequacy tied to least-cost generation planning; pass legislation to streamline the permitting process for energy and environmental projects; and consider passing a version of the “Pay for What You Get Act,” which is model legislation tying utility profits to power plant reliability.
The foundation also calls on the General Assembly to collaborate with in-state stakeholders and partners from neighboring states on reforming the current Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) system with the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM).
“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of the modern energy industry and the keystone for American energy independence,” Béliveau said. “It is high time Pennsylvania championed American energy dominance, and the Commonwealth Foundation intends to lead the way.”