“We’ve got to act quickly,” said Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler.
Pennsylvania Democrats are poised to move swiftly on clean energy and affordability, seizing a trifecta of political power in the state by controlling both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office for the first time since 1993. The shift promises to break years of legislative gridlock on key energy issues following last week’s midterm elections, where Democrats flipped the state Senate.
For the past four years, bills passed by the state House of Representatives often stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. Now, with the party controlling both chambers and the governor’s office, party leaders say they are ready to address rising utility bills and the controversial expansion of data centers.
“What we saw in the results of Tuesday’s election made clear that people are not happy with the status quo. People want to see change. People do not want excuses,” said Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, majority chair of the House Energy Committee. Fiedler, who is from Philadelphia, called the new political environment in Harrisburg "a huge opportunity and a huge responsibility" for her party.
Lowering People’s Bills
Fiedler and her colleagues on the Energy Committee are wasting no time. She said about 15 bills that have already passed the House will be reintroduced “first thing” in the new legislative session, targeting “what’s on people’s minds.”
“At the very top of the list is affordability,” Fiedler said. “We have to find a way to lower people’s bills.” She pointed to several pieces of legislation already in the pipeline, including a bill by Nikki Rivera to allow for energy storage during peak demand and a bill she herself introduced to reform how utility companies calculate their return on equity, a move aimed at preventing excessive profits.
Other proposals include Jacklyn Rusnock’s bill to expand solar installations on warehouses and Arvind Venkat’s bill to promote geothermal energy. Fiedler also plans to introduce a residential solar tax credit, legislation she said is necessary to offset recent federal changes that have impacted renewable energy project funding.
Federal Setbacks
While some stalled legislation is described as "low-hanging fruit," Fiedler said more ambitious proposals are also under consideration. “I’m all for bold and ambitious ideas,” she said, highlighting a renewed focus on solar energy. “Now is a great time to go on the offense on renewable energy and, in particular, solar.”
Fiedler expressed excitement about the future of Solar for Schools, which she says could save millions of dollars for schools that install solar panels, freeing up funds for education. She also pointed to the potential for hydropower on state dams and significant potential for both geothermal and solar projects, potentially spurred by a modest appropriation to the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority.
However, Fiedler emphasized that much of their work is a response to setbacks at the federal level. “When the president decided to dismantle and defund those programs, it had a huge impact,” she said, referring to federal initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act that were intended to support renewable energy construction.
Tackling Data Centers
Clean energy advocates have long pointed to the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards as a limitation in moving the state forward. “It’s been a very long time since it was updated,” FIEDLER said.
“We’ve got to take that into account while we also take into account the climate crisis and global warming, more extreme weather, changes in seasons—all the stuff that is our reality now,” Fiedler said.
Fiedler said the legislature is responding with “much more stringent regulations and requirements.” She cited House Bill 1834, which aims to prevent regular people from subsidizing the build-out of energy systems and transmission for data centers, calling it “the absolute bare minimum of what we should be doing.”
She also mentioned working on a model ordinance bill to guide municipalities and an interconnection bill to ensure ratepayers are not burdened with costs. “It’s really important that there is no rubber stamp,” Fiedler stressed. When asked directly if a data center moratorium is up for discussion, she confirmed, “Discussions are very much ongoing.”
Imaginative Constraints
The new political reality in Harrisburg is expected to unlock long-stalled ideas. Nikil Saval had previously described the composition of the Senate as an “imaginative constraint” on Democrats. With that constraint lifted, Fiedler said “there are a lot of big ideas that it is past time for us to act on.”
“I don’t think there is a single magic solution to the climate crisis that we face right now, but there are a lot of pieces to it,” Fiedler explained. “The Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard is certainly one of those very key pieces.”
