Evergreen: Shapiro Takes One Step Forward, Two Steps Back on Energy Costs

Press Contact: Holly Burke

In response to Governor Josh Shapiro’s announcement that he is appointing a new Special Counsel for Energy Affordability just days after announcing a deal with the Trump administration to keep Pennsylvania coal plants in operation for four years after their scheduled retirement, Evergreen Action Executive Director Lena Moffitt released the following statement:

“This is one step forward after two major steps back. Governor Shapiro is right to want to hold utilities accountable for rate hikes. But if he is serious about fighting rising electricity costs in the commonwealth then he should not be locking ratepayers into four more years of costly and deadly coal power. 

“Pennsylvanians who are already contending with rising energy costs can’t afford to keep outdated, expensive coal plants on life support. Keeping aging coal plants online is consistently more expensive than replacing them with cheaper clean energy and storage. And those cheap clean energy sources don’t come with coal power’s eye-popping death toll. Coal can only take us backwards toward more expensive, dirtier energy. To deliver the low cost power Pennsylvanians want, Governor Shapiro must aggressively pursue deployment of cheap clean energy.”

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