Senator Dush

Appropriations Chairman Scott Martin, Majority Leader Joe Pittman and Senator Tracy Pennycuick led in a series of questions regarding Governor Shapiro’s “negotiated” price caps within PJM on electric rates that I was able to wrap up in the limited time afforded to each of us.

Pennsylvania’s tie to other states where their legislatures have succumbed to irresponsible requirements for “green” energy and has put them into a situation where they can no longer provide the electricity their constituents need. This has lead to the auction prices for electricity production to skyrocket, especially given the spike in demand that has occurred and will be compounding with AI data centers coming on-line.

Shapiro strong armed PJM into accepting these caps, even when he, and anyone who’s lived more than 30 years, should know that price controls have NEVER worked over any but the very shortest length of time and ultimately cause a more significant increase.

Pennsylvanian’s have endured an increase, even after his imposition of the cap that, yes, kept the increases to less than they would have otherwise been. But they resulted in reductions in costs in consumer bills in nearly every other state in the PJM for at least two years. That coincides nicely with the timeline for Governor Shapiro’s campaign for President in two years and impacts about 1/3 of the population of the United States.

Pennsylvanian’s are paying the price already for bad decisions in other states and even with the permitting and drilling bans imposed by Governors Wolf and Shapiro. Unless the Commonwealth’s government moves to responsibly remove unnecessary roadblocks to providing your electrical needs and the Governor and legislature work to reduce the impact the decisions in other states in the PJM we are in trouble.

I brought up the Texas ERCOT model, where the state’s powerlines stop at the state’s border, and PUC Chairman brought up the New York program which has a slight but important difference but still made New York’s residents the primary concern. We need to do that in Pennsylvania. We need to learn the lessons we can see from states that have adopted the Green New Deal with a religious fervor.

(NOTE: While the Chair of the PUC brought up the deaths that occurred in Texas as a result of the Polar Vortex a few years ago, what he didn’t go into was how that was largely a result of the significant reliance on wind and solar in Texas. There were also issues that the extreme cold played on the natural gas supplies but those were a result of the fact that their equipment was designed to standards relative to Texas’ typical coldest weather, not an extreme event such as the Polar Vortex brought on them in that situation. Texas has taken corrective action to deal with that on their infrastructure going forward.)

Our jobs, in the Pennsylvania Legislature as well as the governor’s office, are to serve The People of Pennsylvania first. Helping other states comes down the list and only when it also benefits The People of Pennsylvania. Using the power of the Governor’s office to bring consumer prices down in 13 other states for the period of time that gets him through a projected run for President and providing campaign points in those states is not putting The People of Pennsylvania first!

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Two smaller bridge projects in Brookville (Jefferson County)--originally scheduled for completion this year--are now not expected to be finished until late 2027.

I closed out my second round of questioning with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), by specifically asking Secretary Michael Carroll if we can expect any additional delays to occur?

https://www.pasenategop.com/budget-hearings/
https://commonwealthfoundation.org/blog/septa-myth-busting/

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