HB 501 PRESS Testimony by Patrick McDonnell

House Environment Committee hearing on HB 501 (PRESS), Monday, May 19, 2025: Testimony by PennFuture President & CEO Patrick McDonnell

Good morning, Chairman Vitali, Minority Chair Rader, and Members of the committee, and thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on this important issue. My name is Patrick McDonnell, and I am the President & CEO of PennFuture. 

PennFuture is a statewide environmental advocacy nonprofit. We envision a Commonwealth in which all people enjoy a stable climate, clean air, and pure water. What brings me here today is our pursuit of a sustainable and thriving clean energy economy. 

PennFuture strongly supports House Bill 501—the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standards Act (PRESS) —because it offers a transformative approach to energy generation, which will promote the robust development of a clean energy economy while enhancing affordability for residents across the Commonwealth. PRESS is a necessary and overdue update to Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS) that seeks to leverage Pennsylvania’s historic role as a global leader in energy production. 

When AEPS became law in 2004, Pennsylvania sought to diversify its energy portfolio to keep pace with changes in the energy industry, improve environmental outcomes through diversification, and protect residents from rising utility bills. At that time, coal was the predominant source of energy in Pennsylvania, responsible for 57 percent of Pennsylvania’s electricity, while methane gas (in the days before fracking) provided less than one percent.  

Twenty years later, we find ourselves at another pivotal juncture as the Commonwealth faces urgent challenges to improve grid reliability and mitigate skyrocketing electricity bills. In a matter of weeks, many Pennsylvanians will see their bills increase by as much as 15 percent. This is due, in large part, to our overreliance on fracked gas for more than half of our energy production. Today, gas provides approximately 55 percent of our electricity, and coal is responsible for less than ten percent and keeps falling. 

While coal’s failure to compete in the market with fracked gas may have resulted in lower emissions, the gas boom has left us in an even more dangerous and unsustainable situation than what Pennsylvania faced in 2004. 

In recent years, gas has seen its market prices rise higher and higher while it has also been deemed less and less reliable by PJM—the regional transmission organization responsible for Pennsylvania’s grid. 

The fallout of Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022 and other events, where we saw significant forced outages at gas plants, demonstrated the fossil fuel’s unreliability during times when residents and businesses are most in need. These events forced PJM to re-evaluate the reliability of all resources, downgrade the ability of fracked gas to capably perform during all weather conditions, and sent prices in PJM’s capacity market to levels never seen before—totaling costs of nearly $14.7 billion for 2025 – -26 compared to only $2.2 billion for the previous year. This astronomical increase in capacity prices is now being passed on to residents across the Commonwealth. 

House Bill 501 will help Pennsylvania face this challenge directly. Our current crisis demonstrates that the initial clean energy goals established under AEPS were far too modest—totaling only 8 percent. PRESS will increase this figure to 35 percent and will dramatically improve energy diversity through increased adoption of sources like wind, solar, and geothermal. Renewable energy sources are the cheapest and most readily deployable forms of electricity, and we must rapidly increase Pennsylvania’s share of these.  

PRESS also provides vital support to nuclear power in Pennsylvania through the introduction of Zero Emissions Credits (ZECs). Pennsylvania has long stood as an innovator in the nuclear industry and providing financial incentives for zero-emission power generation is critical to ensure that we keep our existing baseload nuclear facilities on the grid. As extreme weather events continue to grow in frequency, this reliable baseload generation is even more important. 

Clean energy economies are rapidly growing in states across the country. A new report indicates that clean energy sources generated 40 percent of the world’s electricity in 2024. States like Texas and Florida are leveraging clean energy to improve grid reliability and affordability for their residents. Last year, Florida surpassed California in terms of new utility-scale solar capacity on its grid. It has also rapidly increased its small-scale solar installations (less than 1 megawatt) since 2019. 

PennFuture asks the committee to strongly consider how Pennsylvania can also rapidly increase small-scale solar installations through this legislation. Distributed solar or onsite solar allows homeowners, businesses, schools, and others to reduce their electricity bills, improve grid performance, and serve local electricity needs. Distributed solar generation also has the added advantage of bypassing the PJM interconnection queue and improving diversity and reliability much more quickly while bringing jobs to local communities.  

Despite Pennsylvania’s production of fracked gas, residents are not seeing a benefit in their electricity bills. The Commonwealth currently ranks 36th in residential electricity rates with an average cost of 17 cents per kilowatt/hour. Our continued overreliance on gas will only increase the harm experienced by Pennsylvanians as we struggle to keep the lights on. We must chart a new course of action to improve grid diversity, reliability, and affordability. 

House Bill 501 represents a comprehensive approach to modernizing Pennsylvania's energy landscape. By setting ambitious renewable energy targets and establishing mechanisms to fund sustainable projects, the bill seeks to make energy more affordable for residents while promoting environmental stewardship.  

As the committee deliberates on— – and hopefully passes —– this legislation, it's crucial to consider the long-term benefits of a diversified and sustainable energy portfolio—for our utility bills, for our jobs, and for our environment.  

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide testimony on this important legislation.