By Fred Kraybill, Allegheny Group Political Co-chair
Currently, there are four bills in the Pennsylvania Legislature highlighting climate change:
- Energy Efficient Appliance Standards
- Solar for Schools
- Community Solar
- Offshore Wind (for Lake Erie)
All of these bills passed the Pennsylvania House but only one (Solar for Schools) passed the Pennsylvania Senate and was then signed into law during the budget negotiation process.
In addition to those four bills, Governor Shapiro has proposed a comprehensive plan to address the climate crisis called PRESS/PACER. PRESS would require utilities to obtain 35% renewable clean energy by 2035. PACER would cap carbon emissions from power plants, charge those plants a fee to pollute and return the money to the ratepayers to keep energy prices from inflating. It would also use some of that money for clean energy.
The Allegheny Group political committee has been working hard to endorse candidates who care about climate change and will support bills like these. We strongly encourage other groups to do the same. More specifically, in the State Senate we need to add three more climate champions/environmental advocates to be able to pass legislation like this. A primary reason that I personally got involved in the Sierra Club was because I have been a climate activist for many years and my concern about climate change today remains as strong as it ever was. I'm also more hopeful than I have been in the past because a major shift to clean energy and electric transport is accelerating quite rapidly around the world. Here in the U.S. we have the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which I consider to be "climate dynamite" because it has very generous incentives for clean energy and transport. I also think the benefits of the IRA and the energy transformation that's happening as a result are all poorly understood by the average citizen. Sierra Club members could help educate the public about the incentives of the IRA.
The most important thing, though, in my estimation, is passing strong climate legislation in Pennsylvania which can work together with the federal IRA to make the clean energy transition happen all that much faster. Pennsylvania is far behind other states in deploying renewable energy with about 4% of the population in the US and less than 1% of the installed megawatts of wind, solar, and utility scale batteries in the U.S. The IRA has been effective in growing the solar industry. If we can pass PRESS/PACER in Pennsylvania we can join with some of our neighboring states in growing our clean energy industry. If you're interested in how your local legislators are rated environmentally, you may want to view the Environmental Scorecard.
This blog was included as part of the October 2024 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!