{"id":468354,"date":"2026-09-04T11:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=468354"},"modified":"2026-09-04T11:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:43:57","slug":"reality-check-for-pas-failed-green-energy-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=468354","title":{"rendered":"Reality Check for PA\u2019s Failed Green-Energy Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From The CO2 Coalition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Gordon Tomb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each month, Pennsylvania\u2019s 6 million electricity customers\u2014all facing rising bills<\/a>\u2014are charged for services of questionable value without knowing how much they are paying and, for most, that the charge even exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enacted by the legislature in 2004, Pennsylvania\u2019s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act (AEPS) requires that 18 percent of an electricity seller\u2019s offering consists of energy from sources like wind, solar, biomass, and other technologies deemed worthy of special treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, this program, now in its third decade, cost customers more than $700 million. Although the amount each customer pays isn\u2019t entirely visible on an electric bill, a household using 800 kilowatt-hours per month pays $4.11 every month at the 0.514 cents per kilowatt-hour compliance cost. While the charge for residential customers appears modest, AEPS\u2019s lifetime cost of more than $3 billion amounts to a giant handout to special interests at the cost of everyday ratepayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political opposition to AEPS, despite its significant burden, is sparse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a stark contrast to another less-costly subsidy for green energy: the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Costing $3.81 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2025, RGGI\u2019s tax on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel plants costs less than AEPS\u2019s $5.14 per megawatt-hour. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania withdrew from RGGI\u2019s multi-state program last fall when Gov. Josh Shapiro agreed to drop his legal battle in favor of RGGI as part of the state budget deal. The original 2019 proposal to join RGGI rightly drew a firestorm of objections from Republican legislators and business and labor constituencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six years of litigation over RGGI cratered investment in reliable energy, leading to today\u2019s environment of energy scarcity and rising rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what accounts for the survival of one costly subsidy and the death of another?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AEPS came to fruition when prices were relatively stable, while Pennsylvania\u2019s RGGI tax debate came at a time of skyrocketing prices and dwindling supply. In today\u2019s environment, a new tax (i.e., RGGI) is far more vulnerable compared to an already established and codified one (i.e., AEPS). Plus, a divided legislature typically results in a stalemate on any new legislation, so old laws remain on the books\u2014and the status quo marches on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But AEPS is worth revisiting as the program\u2019s costs are ballooning. Pennsylvanians\u2019 prices rose more in the last five and a half years than in the previous 16 combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AEPS not only drives up your electricity bill but also fails to advance these politically preferred technologies beyond a tiny part of the energy mix. Pennsylvania\u2019s share of electricity generation from renewables between 2013 and 2024 has plateaued at 4 percent\u2014mainly because these sources require costly backup power and consume large amounts of land and materials to produce relatively little energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For these reasons\u2014and more\u2014leaders of the \u201cgreen\u201d movement are backing away from \u201cdecarbonization\u201d commitments that have led to economic decline in places like Germany. Yet, Pennsylvania\u2019s bureaucracy persists like an automaton ignorant of machine learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest AEPS annual report<\/a> continues to promote \u201cthe realization of a net zero electricity grid by 2050.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that goal isn\u2019t plausible when considering how inefficient these mandated sources are. Energy writer Robert Bryce explains the \u201claw of power density<\/a>,\u201d showing how many units of energy a specific source produces compared to how many units it uses in its production. Wind and solar produce a 3.5:1 ratio, which is a pittance compared to coal (10:1), oil and natural gas (30:1), and nuclear (100:1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power density, for which these ratios are a measure, \u201chelps us understand why wind and solar energy cannot, will not<\/em>, ever be able to power our society,\u201d says Bryce. \u201cIn addition to their incurable intermittency and dependence on the weather, they require too much land and other resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These inconvenient truths should inspire skepticism of not only AEPS but also any proposal to expand the mandate. As part of his Lightning Plan, Governor Shapiro proposed a new spin on AEPS: the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard (PRESS). PRESS more than doubles the mandated percentage, requiring 50 percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s electricity to come from similar sources by 2035. If enacted, Shapiro\u2019s new mandate would result in $155 billion<\/a> in added energy costs, doubling household electricity bills over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, PRESS failed to make it into this year\u2019s state budget, sparing hard-working Pennsylvanians from paying even more in their monthly utility bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Pennsylvanians aren\u2019t out of the woods. AEPS continues to drive up bills, and the looming threat of PRESS remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time for state leaders to prioritize affordability and allow technologies to stand on their own abilities to deliver low-cost, reliable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commentary was first published at Real Clear Energy<\/em><\/a>, September 2, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon Tomb<\/a> is Senior Advisor at the CO2 Coalition and senior fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania free-market think tank.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each month, Pennsylvania\u2019s 6 million electricity customers\u2014all facing rising bills\u2014are charged for services of questionable value without knowing how much they are paying and, for most, that the charge even exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":468359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Each month, Pennsylvania's 6 million 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