May 13, 2025
Contact: Katie Thompson, Communications Manager, kthompson@keealliance.org, (215) 792-2101
It’s been almost six years since then-Governor Wolf started the process of entering Pennsylvania into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI. In light of today’s final oral arguments before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court regarding the Commonwealth’s RGGI participation, the Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance (KEEA) wants to reiterate our longstanding position: RGGI is a good deal for our state’s energy efficiency industry and for Pennsylvanians.
RGGI is a “cap and invest” carbon trading agreement covering ten Mid-Atlantic states, as well as the District of Columbia. Participating states cap and then trade annual greenhouse gas emissions, with states using proceeds from emission allowance sales to invest in energy infrastructure, weatherization, workforce development, direct energy bill assistance, and other programs. The long-term economic benefits of these investments are immense: a 2023 analysis found that RGGI participation would save Pennsylvanians $1.5 billion in energy costs and reduce residential energy bills. Another estimated that RGGI participation would result in a net increase of 30,000 jobs across the State.
As Pennsylvania faces the twin challenges of increasing PJM energy prices and the possible loss of federally funded tools for cutting energy costs, common-sense energy policy remains more important than ever. RGGI participation is one of those common-sense, high-benefit policies, for both our energy efficiency industry members and the Commonwealth at large.