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Pennsylvania & the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

Rep. Carol Hill-Evans    November 19, 2025 | 3:09 PM

The climate is changing. Extreme weather events are going to keep getting more extreme, costing taxpayers more money to address flooding, storm damage, crashed electric grids and much, much more. 

One of the biggest drivers of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases is generating electricity. Our grids are out of date, and demand is growing already, with even more demand coming with the rise of AI and data centers. 

This is why the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was started – to address Pennsylvania’s outsized role in generating power for the Mid-Atlantic States and try to mitigate the emissions we generate, while innovating for the future of clean energy. 

If this was my budget, we’d have RGGI. We’d have PRESS and PACER and Pennsylvania would be the world’s leader in clean energy generation. But, five months overdue, we had to make compromises to get a deal done. We must make sure schools keep their doors open. We must make sure county services are preserved. We must prevent local tax hikes. We must stop municipal worker layoffs. We must recognize that we have a federal government that’s so unpredictable, we have to assume we’re on our own. 

All these realities mean this budget does not include RGGI. But there is still good news for clean air, clean water, and green spaces.

We’re investing hundreds of millions of dollars in protecting our environment. We’re embracing a Solar for Schools program that not only generates clean power, but saves taxpayers money.  We even created a new state-level tax credit to help working families cut costs and afford to pay their bills, and added a billion dollars in new funding to our schools. 

While we are compromising today, we are not compromising our future. The fight to improve our electric grid continues. The fight to support innovation in clean energy generation continues. The fight to make sure the energy we generate now is as clean as possible continues. We’re still using every tool in the box, and we’re going to do what Pennsylvanians do best – be at the forefront of the next revolution that changes the world.

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Budget wins for environmental conservation:

  • $320 million in federal IRA Solar for All funds to PA Energy Development Authority
    • $156 million for 2024/25 and $166 million for 2025/26
  • $5.8 million ($2.1 million or 59.7% increase) for Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Source Abatement
  • $3 million for Oil/Gas oversight within DEP
  • $134.6 million ($8.8 million or 7% increase) for Environmental Protection Operations
  • $45.4 million ($2.97 million or 7% increase) for Environmental Program Management
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