As schools let out and the summer driving season officially begins, families across Pennsylvania are packing up their cars for long-awaited road trips, visits to loved ones, and well-deserved vacations. But instead of looking forward to the road ahead, too many working families are feeling an all-too-familiar dread when they pull up to the pump. Gas and energy prices are skyrocketing, throwing a wrench into summer plans and straining household budgets that are already stretched thin.
This isn’t a temporary streak of bad luck. It is the direct result of the disastrous approach to both energy and international policy by Donald Trump and his extreme right-wing allies in Washington. Rather than looking out for everyday Americans, the administration has structured its energy agenda to line the pockets of their billionaire oil and gas donors — making them wealthier at our direct expense.
We had a roadmap to lower costs.
Over the past few years, historic federal investments were unleashed to build a resilient, domestic clean energy economy, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into scaling up wind power, expanding solar infrastructure and making electric vehicles more accessible. These investments were designed to diversify our energy grid and drive down utility and fuel costs right now.
Instead, Trump and his congressional allies have systematically rolled back these critical programs. By choking off funding for the clean energy transition, they have kept us locked into a volatile, fossil-fuel-dependent system that leaves American consumers vulnerable to global market shocks.
At the same time, we are facing a dual crisis of supply and demand that the administration has failed to manage. On the domestic front, the rapid and unmanaged growth of energy-intensive data centers is putting an unprecedented strain on our electricity grid, driving up demand and costs. Globally, the administration’s reckless foreign policy choices — culminating in an ongoing conflict with Iran — have severely disrupted global oil supplies and injected massive instability into international energy markets.
The lesson here is glaringly obvious: Doubling down on fossil fuels does not grant us energy independence. It keeps us trapped in a cycle of unpredictable price spikes governed by foreign dictators and corporate executives. The only way to truly solve this crisis, stabilize energy prices and protect working families is to break our addiction to foreign oil once and for all.
Because Washington has chosen to prioritize corporate oil executives over working families, Pennsylvania must chart its own course. We cannot afford to wait for federal leaders to do the right thing while our neighbors suffer. We must reject Trump’s regressive federal energy policies and demand that our lawmakers in Harrisburg step up.
By pushing forward aggressive clean energy policies at the state level — expanding our own solar and wind production, upgrading our regional grid and making it easier for families to switch to electric vehicles — we can build a localized, reliable energy economy that protects Pennsylvanians from global volatility and lowers costs for the long term.
Clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels. And electric vehicles save families more than $1,000 a year in fuel and maintenance costs.
The clean energy revolution isn’t just good for the planet — it’s good for our wallets.
READ: In Response to Another War, Harrisburg Must Finally Act to Break Our Addiction to Foreign Oil
This summer, as we watch the numbers increase rapidly at the gas pump, let it serve as a wake-up call. True energy security means investing in a clean, sustainable future right here at home.
And while Democrats in the state House of Representatives have repeatedly advanced measures to expand EV charging infrastructure and establish community solar in our commonwealth, Senate Republicans have time and again refused to take up legislation designed to save their constituents money.
Instead, they have aligned themselves with the most extreme elements of the Trump agenda, putting the profits of their donors ahead of the wellbeing of Pennsylvania families.
This gridlock must end. It’s time for Harrisburg to lead the way and deliver the relief Pennsylvania families deserve.
