With the potential repeal of clean energy tax credits looming in Congress and crucial decisions about our power grid’s future hanging in the balance in the next few months, Pennsylvania stands at a crossroads. Our choices today will determine not just the cost of powering our homes, but also the future of thousands of manufacturing jobs and our state’s position in the clean energy economy.
Pennsylvania must play a leading role in shaping the policies that will secure our energy future — and renewable energy can and should be a key part of that future.
The United States recorded more than $315 billion in clean energy investments last year, according to the International Energy Agency. In 2023, Pennsylvania’s clean energy industry employed 100,704 workers, representing a 4.6% increase from 2022. Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, new clean energy projects have spurred $1.33 billion in investment and helped create 4,692 new clean energy jobs in the Keystone State.
This progress would be set back if the clean energy tax credits that are part of the Inflation Reduction Act get repealed. While this prospect might be appealing for some in the fossil fuel industry, these investments have bipartisan support.
Recently, 21 House Republicans wrote publicly to the chairman of the tax-writing committee to defend the clean energy tax credits and “to emphasize the importance of prioritizing energy affordability for American families and keeping on our current path to energy dominance amid efforts to repeal or reform current energy tax credits.” More than 300 clean energy business leaders wrote to congressional leadership arguing that repeal would be an “economic and national security disaster” that would “pull the rug out from growing American businesses and countless workers.”
The impact of repealing or undermining these investments would be enormous: hundreds of thousands of good jobs going overseas and higher energy costs across the country. Pennsylvania’s manufacturing jobs have declined by more than 33% in the past two decades, but clean energy investments are rebuilding the state’s manufacturing industry for the economy of the future. We need to keep this momentum going, not do an about-face.
In 2023, more than 158,000 Pennsylvania families benefitted from more than $267 million in tax credits to lower the costs of clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades to their homes. Investment in clean energy and decreased spending on gasoline are projected to reduce average annual household energy spending by a cumulative $9.5 billion through 2050 across all households in Pennsylvania.
Despite claims to the contrary, electricity bills are not rising because of renewable energy. In reality, electricity bills are going up largely because we are relying too much on a single energy source: gas.
Right now, more often than not, gas powers the turbines that convert energy into electricity. And natural gas prices in Pennsylvania jumped 19% last year alone. This overreliance on gas is driving up electricity bills.
With new advances in energy storage, we can now produce wind and solar when it’s cheapest and most abundant—like when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing — store it, then use it when it is needed. Expanding clean energy will not only mean lower electricity bills, but also that we have more energy at our fingertips.
But PJM Interconnection, which manages the electricity grid for our state and at least part of 12 others, is lagging behind other regions of the country in adding new resources like solar, wind and battery storage that are low cost and combine well for reliability in a regional grid that can move power when and where it’s needed.
There could be a shortage of energy generation in the future because of years-long delays by PJM in adding those new, clean energy sources thanks to PJM’s outdated interconnection process. Of the energy projects waiting to connect to our electrical grid, about 95% are wind, solar, energy storage and other renewable projects.
A more balanced energy market — with more clean energy sources — will have another advantage. Pricing of home-grown renewables is less volatile and unaffected by geopolitical conditions or global economic factors.
The bottom line: We should be focusing on bringing cheaper and more reliable new energy sources online right away. This might not be in the best interest of fossil fuel companies, but it’s in the best interest of Americans.
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Erika Strassburger is a member of Pittsburgh City Council.