As we enter the second year of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, his all-out war on the environment has become a devastating and daily reality.
From destroying the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy investments and tax credits in the Big “Ugly” Bill to the continued dismantling of the Clean Water Act to gutting the EPA’s ability to limit toxic pollution, the federal government has spent the last 12 months systematically trading away our public health to boost the profit margins of Trump’s billionaire donors.
The scale of the destruction is staggering.
In 2025 alone, the administration initiated hundreds of actions to roll back environmental safeguards. They have prioritized a “drill, baby, drill” approach over the basic right to breathe clean air, even going so far as to eliminate the “endangerment finding” — the scientific bedrock that allows the government to regulate the greenhouse gases currently supercharging extreme weather across Pennsylvania.
But this isn’t just an environmental crisis, it is also an economic one that is being felt in the wallets of working Pennsylvanians every single day.
READ: What Top Climate Scientists Think of Trump’s Treaty Withdrawals
While billionaire oil and gas executives are being enriched by these rollbacks, everyday Pennsylvanians are being left to foot the bill. By aggressively prioritizing volatile fossil fuels and blocking the growth of cheaper, cleaner energy like wind and solar, the federal government is effectively jacking up energy prices for working families.
In the face of this federal assault, the burden of protection falls squarely on Harrisburg.
Unfortunately, that effort is falling woefully short.
Last year, the state House of Representatives passed a series of common-sense, pro-environment bills designed to lower costs and reduce pollution.
These included measures to bring community solar to neighborhoods across the state, reduce toxic “forever chemicals” like PFAS in our drinking water and make it easier for families to transition to clean energy. These solutions are not radical — they are essential tools to help families keep the lights on and keep their children safe.
Yet, in the state Senate, these bills hit a brick wall.
Throughout 2025, Senate leadership held zero votes and zero hearings on these pro-environment priorities. While your energy bills climbed and clean air and water continued to suffer, the solutions sat on a shelf, blocked by politicians who seem more interested in protecting special interests than their own constituents.
The Senate’s crowning achievement was actually a massive step backward: forcing Governor Shapiro and House Democrats into a corner on budget negotiations, leading to a deal that forced Pennsylvania to exit the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a move that robbed our state of over $1 billion in annual clean energy investments that could have been used to lower electricity prices and bring more clean energy on line.
As we begin 2026, we cannot afford another year of inaction. Our 2026 Energy Affordability and Environment Agenda provides a clear roadmap for Harrisburg to step up:
- Modernize our antiquated energy standards to lower energy costs: Pennsylvania currently ranks near the bottom in renewable energy growth. We need to pass Governor Shapiro’s PRESS plan, which would put us on the path to 35% renewable energy by 2035 — stabilizing costs while insulating us from the price spikes of global gas markets.
- Regulate data centers: Our energy crisis is being driven by demand for massive new data centers. To control rising costs, the legislature must pass comprehensive legislation that keeps Pennsylvanians’ electricity costs from spiking and ensuring that trillionaire tech companies bear the costs of new data infrastructure — not Pennsylvanians.
- Solar-Ready Warehouses: Legislation like HB 1260 would require new large-scale distribution centers to be built solar-ready, turning massive roofs into clean power plants for local communities.
The public is already on our side.
Pennsylvanians — regardless of party — want affordable energy, clean air and a say in how their communities are developed. They are tired of seeing their health sacrificed for the sake of a few wealthy donors or CEOs.
READ: Bucks County Is the Newest Frontier in the Data Center Boom. Buyer Beware
The Senate must end its blockade of clean energy policy and come to the table in good faith.
This spring, Conservation Voters of PA will be organizing across the commonwealth, flooding legislative offices with calls and bringing voters directly to Harrisburg for a massive lobby day. We are prepared to exert the public pressure necessary to force action.
The federal government may have abandoned its duty to protect us, but Pennsylvania doesn’t have to. It’s time for Harrisburg to stop looking the other way and start looking out for us.
