Pennsylvania legislators have prioritized electricity affordability this year. First, they exited the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the multistate carbon-tax compact. Then, with the newly passed state budget, they defeated Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Lightning Plan, which would have layered an additional in-state carbon tax and expanded Pennsylvania’s clean-energy mandate. 

But Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) remains on the books, unexamined for 20 years. AEPS requirements are modest compared to other states, which makes repealing them the real test of whether Harrisburg believes in affordability, or just got lucky twice. States, especially the blue ones, endure expensive electricity through policy choices, not geography—and Pennsylvania teeters on the verge of making the wrong choice. 

Read the rest of this op-ed, coauthored by Joshua Schubert at the Commonwealth Foundation and Always On Energy Research’s Sarah Montalbano on August 3, 2026, at the Daily Signal.