{"id":273123,"date":"2026-08-27T08:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273123\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:54:19","slug":"how-pa-could-catch-up-on-solar-adoption-spotlight-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273123\/","title":{"rendered":"How PA could catch up on solar adoption \u2022 Spotlight PA"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News<\/a>, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania was a pioneer on renewable energy<\/a> before the fracking boom upended that trajectory, and environmental advocates think it\u2019s past time for state leaders to once again prioritize clean forms of power.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit PennFuture outlined ways for Pennsylvania to do so in a new report<\/a>, accusing the state\u2019s legislature of \u201cpolicy inertia\u201d for failing to pass bills that would increase adoption and reduce the cost of energy for consumers.<\/p>\n

The advocacy group said a majority of state lawmakers favor a policy of \u201cmore gas now\u201d rather than enabling the development of increasingly cheap renewable energy and battery storage that would cut climate pollution. Among the measures that PennFuture suggested legislators support: allowing community solar, a way for renters and others who can\u2019t install their own panels to tap into local solar arrays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThoughtful solar policies can also facilitate development of PV [photovoltaic] panels on the countless rooftops of warehouses and distribution centers that populate the landscape,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The report called on lawmakers to increase the share of renewable energy required by the state\u2019s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards, which currently mandate that some 18 percent of the electricity utilities distribute come from renewable sources. Neighboring New Jersey<\/a>, by contrast, required utilities to source double that share last year and 50 percent by 2030.<\/p>\n

David Hess, a former secretary of the state\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection, said the Pennsylvania House, which has a slim Democratic majority, has passed many bills that would enable programs such as community solar, warehouse solar and expanding energy-efficiency programs at utilities.<\/p>\n

But the bills have not become law because of opposition from the Republican majority in the state Senate, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenate Republicans are using the same talking points they\u2019ve been given by the natural gas industry for the last 15 years to lock us into a \u2018one-of-the-above\u2019 energy strategy \u2014 natural gas \u2014 and the price spikes and instability that comes from a market tied to LNG exports and international markets,\u201d Hess wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

Some 60 percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s electricity is generated by gas. The state has a large supply, but over-reliance on one source does not promote stable electricity prices and ignores renewables that are cheaper than natural gas, Hess said.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute Pennsylvania, said the report failed to consider all possible energy sources. \u201cPennsylvania needs an all-of-the-above strategy, including its abundant natural gas resources, along with permitting reform that allows us to build the infrastructure every energy source depends on. Natural gas will remain critical to delivering reliable, affordable energy while supporting continued emissions reductions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gas, when burned, is less polluting than coal. But it still contributes to the climate pollution that\u2019s worsening costly, dangerous extreme weather<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Gene Yaw, who as chair of the environmental resources and energy committee has outsized power over the fate of renewables legislation, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The PennFuture report also called for deploying energy-storage projects more rapidly, incentivizing solar development on industrial brownfield sites and developing solar fields on Pennsylvania\u2019s many shuttered coal mine sites and former coal-fired power stations.<\/p>\n

The alternative to boosting natural gas is to create a \u201cnew energy economy powered by clean energy, energy efficiency strategies and decarbonization technology,\u201d the report said. \u201cPennsylvania can shake free its over-reliance on fossil fuels, do right by coal communities left behind, and lead the nation in innovation and clean energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data centers\u2014more than 50 of which are planned for Pennsylvania\u2014are driving big new demand for electricity, much of which may end up generated by natural gas. Residential electric rates in the state have risen by around 12 percent in the last year in anticipation of the new demand and the high costs of upgraded transmission.<\/p>\n

Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, issued an executive order<\/a> directing data center developers to provide their own power and pay the full cost of transmission upgrades without shifting costs to ratepayers. The order, issued after growing community opposition to data center plans across the state, also requires the centers to buy an increasing amount of their power from renewable sources, including solar, advanced nuclear and battery storage, rising to 32 percent by 2035.<\/p>\n

Donna Kohut, author of the PennFuture report, said Shapiro\u2019s order for increasing renewable use was a step in the right direction but is no guarantee that the legislature will follow with measures that mandate greater use of renewables.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we\u2019ve got this bit of momentum from the governor, it\u2019s up to the state legislature to move forward,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

David Masur, executive director of the nonprofit PennEnvironment, welcomed the report\u2019s policy prescriptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been clear for a long time that the question isn\u2019t one of technological capability or effectiveness of the policies but whether our elected officials have the political will and the intestinal fortitude to implement these much-needed energy policies,\u201d Masur wrote in an email. \u201cIt\u2019s time we take the policy steps necessary to move our energy systems out of the 19th century and into \u2026 the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania, he said, ranked 47th in the nation for renewable energy growth<\/a> in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed and blue states alike are rapidly pivoting to more renewable energy and stronger renewable-energy policies to stimulate that growth,\u201d Masur said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-273123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}