PA Senate majority leader Joe Pittman has issued a statement in response to an announcement by Governor Josh Shapiro concerning electricity prices.
On Monday, Shapiro announced he filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against regional electric transmission organization PJM Interconnection saying that the group’s capacity auction design threatens to impose significant new price increases, saying the problems lie with PJM not allowing new power plants to request connection to its grid and other flaws in the capacity model. He said that left unaddressed, the next capacity auction scheduled for next July could result in over $20 billion in unnecessary energy costs for Pennsylvania residents.
Senator Pittman says that the real problem continues to be the state’s debate over the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. He said that while the Commonwealth Court ruled 13 months ago that RGGI was in violation of the State Constitution, Shapiro “refuses to accept the decision and continues to waste more taxpayer dollars appealing the decision to the Supreme Court.” He said that if the Governor was truly interested in protecting Pennsylvania electric customers, he should drop his own lawsuit that supports a program Pittman says would increase the cost of electricity by half-a-billion dollars annually. He added that as a new two-year legislative session gets underway, there will be a renewed effort in the Senate to lessen the pressure from higher electricity bills.
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