Sen. Greg Rothman: Clean power plan reboot will cripple Pa.’s energy affordability

President Biden’s political implosion has sparked one of the most chaotic election cycles in modern history. Desperate to put the turmoil behind them, Democrats moved with lightning speed to anoint Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee. In doing so, they careened from one disaster to another by backing a candidate whose eco-activist energy policy will continue driving up costs for hardworking Pennsylvanians.

Last year, the Biden-Harris administration sought to energize its far-left base by resurrecting and expanding the failed Obama-era Clean Power Plan. Even more radical than its predecessor, which only targeted coal, CPP 2.0 goes after both coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.

CPP 2.0 imposes infeasible mandates that cannot be met with currently available technology and on the timeline the administration has laid out. As a result, power plants will either be forced to shut down or will never be built at all. Supply will be substantially limited as demand surges, driving costs through the roof.

The squeeze is already being felt. The PJM, the entity responsible for ensuring electric reliability in our state, recently announced the results of its latest auction for electricity delivery for 2025-26 showing a staggering increase of 933% over the 2024-25 wholesale price. That will inevitably be passed along in the form of higher bills for electricity customers.

The disastrous impact of the Biden-Harris energy agenda was not only predictable, it was predicted.

Earlier this year, when the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the first part of CPP 2.0, which imposed mandates on existing coal and new gas-fired power plants, our power grid operator warned that, “the Final Rule may work to drive premature retirement of coal units that provide essential reliability services and dissuade new gas resources from coming online. The EPA has not sufficiently reconciled its compliance dates with the need for generation to meet dramatically increasing load demands on the system.”

There is more trouble ahead as the rule will likely expand to natural gas after the election.

CPP 2.0 started as one major rule that covered both new and existing natural gas units, but to save political face, the Biden-Harris administration split the rule in two, punting a final rule on existing natural gas units until after November. However, right after the election, there should be no doubt that existing natural gas units will be back on the chopping block.

Our state relies on natural gas for around 60% of its electricity and we are the second largest producer of natural gas in the country. The industry supports hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and contributes billions to our economy. While we move toward further diversifying our energy mix, natural gas remains essential to our electricity supply and the families, farmers, and businesses that depend on it. Unfortunately, Harris and her band of eco-warrior zealots at the White House have proven they will not allow economic reality to stand in the way of their political agenda.

For Pennsylvanians, we should not forget that that the pain of these policies will be compounded if Harris gets her way. She campaigned for president promising to end fracking for energy, which supports nearly half a million jobs in the Keystone State.

The math is simple, and the consequences are clear. If you shut down existing power plants and make it impossible to build new ones, it will translate directly to higher costs across the board — groceries, utility bills, transportation — even though prices are already up 20% under the Biden-Harris administration. Pennsylvanians cannot afford to pay even higher utility bills for less reliable power. We all need to take a look at what Harris’ energy policy would mean for our households, our communities and our commonwealth, and vote accordingly.

Sen. Greg Rothman of Perry County, a Republican, represents Pennsylvania’s 34th District.