HARRISBURG, PA (November 12, 2025) — The deal announced today to end Pennsylvania’s budget stalemate will result in the Commonwealth’s departure from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Since its 2009 launch, RGGI has saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars on energy, with billions more in savings to come; created thousands of new jobs; and improved public health while helping to cut carbon pollution from the region’s power plants in half.
Following is reaction from Manish Bapna, President and CEO of the NRDC Action Fund:
“In 2023, Governor Shapiro convened the RGGI Working Group, bringing together organized labor, the energy industry, environmental organizations, and consumer advocates. Despite competing interests, this diverse group reached a historic consensus on the need for a cap-and-invest carbon program to support the state’s energy transition. That thoughtful stakeholder consensus was lost as the Commonwealth walked away from the most significant piece of climate policy in its history, and left an important legal precedent unresolved.”
“At a time when families and businesses are struggling with rising energy prices, RGGI would have generated billions in annual investments for energy programs that lower electricity bills and create thousands of clean energy jobs across the Commonwealth.
“With affordability fueling pro-clean energy candidate wins in elections across the country last week, this last-minute, head-scratching move feels very out of step with voters, and what Pennsylvania families actually need and want.”
