Renewable Energy

It's time. Pennsylvania needs to unlock its clean energy potential.

Pennsylvania has a choice–innovate or stagnate. It can modernize and move towards a new energy economy powered by renewable generation, energy storage technology, and energy efficiency strategies. Or it can continue its overdependence on expensive, dirty, and outdated fossil fuels. 

The cost of innovative technologies like clean energy and battery storage continues to drop while the financial price and environmental costs of extracting and burning fossil fuels continue to rise. It's well past time to enable the clean energy solutions that are already transforming neighboring states.

Pennsylvania’s clean energy workforce grew 10% from 2017-2020, 5x faster than state’s employment growth rate

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Cleaner environment, family-sustaining jobs.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the clean energy economy employed more than twice as many workers as the state’s entire fossil fuel industry. 

More than 75,000 Pennsylvania jobs are tied to clean energy. The industry’s job growth is five times faster than the state’s overall employment growth rate.

Rapidly transitioning to renewable energy would meanwhile help us avoid the most serious consequences of climate change. Phasing out coal and gas-fired power plants would improve air quality, disproportionately benefiting people of color and low-income communities. 

Outdated renewable energy policies

Modest goals and meager financial incentives are holding back our potential. 

Pennsylvania requires 18 percent of electricity production come from “alternative energy sources.” Several non-renewable electricity sources, many from outside the state, unfortunately count toward this goal. 

The state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard credits electricity producers as diverse as wood-powered biomass, municipal solid waste and landfill gas facilities. 

More than any other source, the state program rewards combustion of toxic coal mining waste.

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Pennsylvania's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard requires a meager 0.5% of electricity supply come from solar PV systems

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PennFuture’s renewable energy agenda.

  • Amend the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act to incentivize local, grid-scale solar.
  • Enable community solar, allowing residents and businesses to access solar power even if the infrastructure is not compatible on their own property.
  • Establish fast-track permitting, with clear environmental safeguards, for new renewable energy production, storage, and transmission.
  • Reform the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Energy Program to ensure the program aligns with a transition to a diversified, balanced, and sustainable energy economy.
  • Incentivize battery storage deployment while establishing producer responsibility for recycling and safe end-of-life disposal.