PA House Energy — 2026-04-13

Thank you. Thank you.

Chair Fiedler.

Representative Boyd. Designation. E apartment, a caratha county. N Dale Palmer,edu N A�ma,Sarland County. Representative McAndrew Designation Representative Pielli Here Representative Rusnak Here Representative Steele Designation Representative Venkat Here

Representative Armanini Here Representative Barton Designation Representative Cook Present Representative Hamm Designation Representative Cale Designation Representative Kephart Representative Mihalik Designation Representative Rapp Designation Representative Stamball Here Representative Warner Designation Representative Williams The sentence is recorded and a quorum has been established. You may proceed, Madam Chair.

calls up steve please read a summary of the bill this bill establishes a regulatory framework for

of the amendment. Amendment A-02864 removes criteria the Environmental Quality Board may

and fees, and limits Department of Environmental Protection enforcement powers.

Is there any discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, I'd like to thank Chairman Cosler, the amendment sponsor, for their interest in the bill, but express clearly that I have concerns about the way that the language is drafted. I look forward to hopefully working together to see if once this bill is out of committee we can find a way to reach agreement on this. My concern is that the amendment removes important language that would allow the Environmental Equality Board to consider community impacts when it is creating regulations. And of even greater concern to me is the amendment's removal of DEP's ability to pause operations when there are repeated violations. This piece is incredibly important to me to make sure we are protecting the people who already live in these communities. Removing that power creates what I deem an unacceptable potential risk to public safety and the public in general, and I'm asking members for a no vote. Again, I want to emphasize I look forward to working with the chairman once this bill is out of our committee, and hopefully we can get to a better place on this and hopefully bipartisan, strong bipartisan support. Nick, would you please call the roll?

Chair Fiedler. No.

Chair Couser. Yes.

I would like to recognize Representative Venkat who will offer A Steve please read a summary of the amendment This amendment clarifies the duties of the Environmental Quality Board and the duties of the Department of Environmental Protection It also clarifies that nothing in this act shall be construed to amend established oil and gas law. Thank you. Representative Venkat, would you like to speak on your amendment? Thank you, Chair Fiedler. I just want to thank the many stakeholders who provided input to improve the bill through this amendment. I especially want to recognize the Marcellus Shale Coalition who were instrumental in making sure that these provisions are added to the bill, and I would certainly urge an affirmative vote. Thank you. We'll now go to discussion on the amendment. Representative Williams. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to reiterate something that I said during our hearing on this issue, which is that I really appreciate the work of both chair on this committee and staff. As Representative Vincat said, you know, our co-prime sponsorship of this bill, we were contacted by stakeholders about some areas where they sought improvement. And this amendment is intended to provide that improvement. And I encourage a yes vote. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion on the amendment? I do. Chairman Couser. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I do think that there's an opportunity to work in a bipartisan manner on geothermal. I think that this amendment does make marginal improvements to the bill. I certainly disagree with the assertion of the prior comments on my amendment. I actually think that my amendment did not do what some folks think that it did. But that's certainly the discussion we can have on the House floor. But as I said, this amendment does make marginal improvement to the bill. So I would ask for support for the amendment. Thank you, Chairman. Before we proceed to a vote, I would like to thank the amendment sponsor for his work on this bill. I am glad that we can hopefully get this out of committee. I would urge members to vote yes on the amendment. Nick, would you call the roll? Chair Fiedler. Yes. Representative Boyd. Yes, by designation. Representative Brown. Yes, by designation. Representative Serrato. Yes. Representative Davidson. Yes, designation. Representative Donohue. Yes, designation. Representative Friel. Yes, designation. Representative Jural. Yes, designation. Representative Ingalls. Yes, designation. Representative McAndrew. Yes, designation. Representative Pielli. Yes. Representative Rusnak. Yes. Representative Steele. Yes, designation. Representative Venkat. Yes. Chair Causer. Yes. Representative Armanini. Yes. Representative Barton. Yes. Representative Cook. Yes. Representative Hamm. Yes. Representative Kale. Yes. Representative Kephart. Yes. Representative Mihalik. Yes. Representative Rapp. Yes. Representative Stambaugh. Yes. Representative Warner. Yes. Representative Williams. Yes. On the question, the yeses are 26 and the noes are zero. The amendment is adopted. Thank you. The amendment is adopted and the bill is amended. The question is, will the committee report the bill as amended? Is there any discussion on the bill? Representative Venkat, you may go ahead. Thank you, Chair Fiedler. I think from the deliberations we've had in this committee, it is clear that there's a great opportunity in the Commonwealth to develop geothermal energy. And I'm very grateful for the bipartisan work that has gotten us to this stage. I specifically want to thank my partners on this legislation, Representative Williams and Chair Fiedler, along with the staff of the committee. And I would certainly urge a yes vote because I believe that this is the type of work we should be doing on this energy committee, which is to bring more energy sources onto the grid here in Pennsylvania in a responsible way that can meet the needs of all Pennsylvanians. And I think this legislation gives us that opportunity. So, again, thank you, and I would urge an affirmative vote. Thank you so much, Representative. Chairman Couser. Thank you very much, and I'd like to thank the sponsors of this bill. I do think that this is an opportunity for us to work in a bipartisan manner, although I will say that I think the bill still needs to be refined, certainly willing to work with anyone who wants to work in that direction. And my hope is that while I'll be opposing the bill moving from committee today, My hope is that we can continue to work toward a final product and that it can be a bipartisan product in the future. Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to thank Representative Venkat and Representative Williams for their bipartisan work on this, and I hope it's a pattern that we can continue on this committee. It's clear to me that in the coming years we need to produce more energy. All of us here, Democrats and Republicans, are accountable to our constituents back home, and we all know that their bills are rising. People are afraid, people are frustrated, and people are worried about what the future holds. We held a hearing on this legislation a few weeks ago, and the industry, administration, environmental groups, and labor were all in agreement that this legislation will lay the groundwork for investment in a promising new energy generation industry. This is tremendously exciting. In fact, I'm not aware of any stakeholder opposition to this bill. For these reasons, I encourage members to support this emerging industry that could create much-needed baseload power and jobs with limited environmental impacts. I want to repeat that one sentence I said before, which is, I am not aware of any stakeholder opposition to this bill. I note that twice because I think that is tremendous and largely a reflection of the work of this committee and of the prime sponsors of this bill who have worked very, very hard to bring as many stakeholders on board as possible. Seeing no further questions or comments on the bill, we will now proceed to a vote. Will the committee report House Bill 2076, printers number 2659, sponsored by Representative Venkat, as amended? Those in favor of reporting the bill as amended will vote yes, those opposed no. Nick, will you please call the roll? Chair Fiedler. Yes. Representative Boyd. Yes, by designation. Representative Brown. Yes, Yes. Rep. Serrano. Yes. Rep. Davidson. Yes. Rep. Donahue. Yes. Designation. Rep. Friel. Yes. Rep. Jurral. Yes. Rep. Ingalls. Yes. Rep. McAndrew. Yes. Rep. Pieli. Rep. Rusnock. Rep. Steele. Yes. nation representative Venkat yes chair Couser no representative Arminini representative Barton no representative cook representative ham no representative kale representative Kephart representative Mahalik no representative rap no representative Stambaugh no representative Warner no Representative Williams. On the question, the yeses are 15 and the noes are 11. The motion passes. House Bill 2076, sponsored by Representative Venkat, will be reported from the Energy Committee as amended. We will now proceed to the consideration of House Bill 2223, printers number 2952, sponsored by the chair, which the chair now calls up. Steve, please read a summary of the bill. This bill requires advanced transmission technologies to be integrated into new transmission lines within the PUC's jurisdiction. The Chair is in receipt of one amendment to the bill, which the Chair will now offer. That amendment is A-02861. Steve, please read a summary of the amendment. This amendment requires the Public Utility Commission to adopt standards for advanced transmission technology assessments It also adjusts the definition of advanced transmission technologies As the sponsor of the amendment I will just briefly say that this amendment incorporates feedback we received at last month public hearing on the bill and I believe it will make it easier for utilities to understand how to comply with the requirements that are set forth in this legislation. Is there any discussion on the amendment? Chairman Causer. Thank you, Madam Madam Chair, I have broader comments on the bill, but I think the amendment does marginally make the bill better, so I would ask for support for the amendment. Thank you, Chairman. Any other comments or questions? Before we proceed to a vote, I would like to urge members to vote yes on the amendment. Nick, would you call the roll? Chair Fiedler. Yes. Representative Boyd. Yes, by designation. Representative Brown. Yes, by designation. Representative Serrato. Yes. Representative Davidson. Yes. Representative Donahue. Yes. Designation. Representative Friel. Yes. Designation. Representative Durall. Yes. Designation. Representative Ingels. Yes. Designation. Representative McAndrew. Yes. Designation. Representative Piley. Yes. Representative Rusnak. Yes. Representative Steele. Yes. Designation. Representative Venkat. Yes. Chair Cavicer, yes. Representative Armanini, yes. Representative Barton, yes. Representative Cook, yes. Representative Hamm, yes. Representative Kale, yes. Representative Kephart, yes. Representative Mihalik, yes. Representative Rapp, yes. Representative Stambaugh, yes. Representative Warner, yes. Representative Williams, yes. On the question, the yeses are 26 and the noes are zero. The amendment is adopted. The amendment is adopted and the bill is amended. For the record, I do want to note joining us in person are Representatives Davidson and Cale. The question is, will the committee report the bill as amended? Is there any discussion on the bill? Chairman Causer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I do think that this bill is another opportunity to work in a bipartisan manner. And I think that, as I said previously, the amendment is an improvement to the bill. There are still concerns with the bill in that it is a mandate that someone's going to have to pay for. And I know that this bill or this committee has repeatedly talked about increasing cost, increasing energy cost to consumers and placing additional mandates on electric utilities in Pennsylvania, building transmission projects, there's a cost to that. And so I don't think the bill is completely refined to the point where we can support it, but hope that we can get there in the future. I'm going to be against the bill. Thank you, Chairman. Seeing no further comments, I will just emphasize that much of the work that we have done on this committee is to bring up bills that will help to lower or limit costs both for the constituents back home who come into all of our district offices struggling with incredibly large bills that they cannot pay already and that everyone expects will go up. Real people who are facing impossible decisions, absolutely impossible choices between getting their prescription filled for life-saving medication and paying to keep their heat on, paying to keep their electric on. These are choices no one should have to make. But we know that people are making them in our districts back home right now. And so I believe the work of this committee is to do everything we can to get more power online, to work to make our grid more reliable and resilient, so that we can hopefully avoid some of these worst case scenarios, blackouts, brownouts, bills that are even larger than they are now, things that none of our constituents can possibly afford or be expected to deal with. I'm excited for this bill, the Advanced Transmission Technologies Bill, because I think it fits into that goal of cutting costs and trying to keep costs as low as possible for people and trying to make as much as we can from our existing grid. That, in fact, is exactly what these ATTs do, preventing the need to run new transmission lines so that we can get as much as possible out of the ones that we have right now. As the chairman said, I too am very hopeful that before this bill makes it to the House floor, we can get to a good place and ideally have bipartisan support. That remains my goal in this committee, and I hope that we can get there. i believe that there is a growing consensus among people of both parties both in the state government and on the federal level that this has to be a priority including the fact that senator mccormick for example is now pushing for this very same technology atts at the federal level seeing no further questions or comments on the bill we will now proceed to a vote Will the committee report House Bill 2223, printers number 2952, sponsored by the chair as amended? Those in favor of reporting the bill as amended will vote yes. Those opposed, no. Nick, will you please call the roll? Chair Fiedler. Yes. Representative Boyd. Yes. Representative Brown. Yes, by designation. Representative Serrato. Yes. Representative Davidson. Yes. Representative Donahue. Yes, designation. Yes, designation. No. Representative Hamm. No. Representative Kale. No. Representative Kephart. No. Representative Mihalik. No. Representative Rapp. No. Representative Stambaugh. Yes. Representative Warner. No. Representative Williams. Yes. On the question, the yeses are 16 and the nays are 10. The motion passes. House Bill 2223, sponsored by the Chair, will be reported from the Energy Committee as amended. We will now proceed to the last item of business on today's agenda, House Bill 2347, printers number 3143, sponsored by the Chair, which the Chair now calls up. Steve, please read a summary of the bill. This bill updates the duties of the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority and alters the membership of its board. The Chair is in receipt of one amendment to the bill which the Chair now offers. That amendment is A-02852. Steve, please read a summary of the amendment. This amendment changes the name of the authority to the Pennsylvania Energy Financing Authority, or PEFA. Thank you, Steve. As the sponsor of the amendment and a member of the authority's board, I feel that financing is a much better description of the authority's mission and work, and I believe that a name change, while it may seem small, is significant in helping folks better understand the important role this authority can play in the Commonwealth. Is there any discussion on the amendment? Chairman Causer. Madam Chair, I'm not sure if the organization wants to be called PEFA or not, but I have no objection to the amendment. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Seeing no further comments or questions on the amendment, I will urge members to vote yes. Nick, will you please call the roll? Chair Fiedler. Yes. Representative Boyd. Yes. Representative Brown. Yes, by designation. Representative Serrato. Yes. ln the deleted them Yes designation Representative Pielli Yes Representative Russnock Representative Steele Yes designation Representative Venkat Yes. Chair Couser. Yes. Representative Armanini. Representative Barton. Yes. Representative Cook. Yes. Representative Ham. Yes. Representative Cale. Yes. Representative Kephart. Representative Michalik. Yes. Representative Rapp. Yes. Representative Stamball. Yes. Representative Warner. Yes. Representative Williams. On the question, the yeses are 26 and the noes are zero. The amendment is adopted. Great. Thank you. The amendment is adopted and the bill is amended. The question is, will the committee report the bill as amended? Is there any discussion on the bill? Yes. Do you want to report the bill? Yes. Representative Williams, you may go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. So now we have what is called the Pennsylvania Energy Financing Authority. I'd like to refer to you in this bill to paragraph 21 with its purposes, as written in this bill, to plan, design, develop, finance, construct, own, operate, maintain, improve projects, including pilot programs, either alone or jointly with another entity, energy production. So in one bill, we've taken something that is supposed to be now a financing authority and turned it into electricity generation ownership and building, competing in the marketplace as a government entity. Why would you do that? For one reason, to bring uneconomic energy online and pay for it with taxpayer money. Let me say it again, to bring uneconomic energy that otherwise wouldn't be built online into the marketplace and pay for it with taxpayer money. Something that merchant generators would not build because, again, it's uneconomic. That's the whole purpose of paragraph 21. I don't think that the government ought to be in the business of building things that people don't want, don't want to build, and certainly don't want to pay for, especially in an era where the number one issue of the day in terms of our economics is whether or not we have enough electricity. Building more uneconomic electricity that is non-dispatchable and intermittent is not the answer. large, large I'm sorry, generation plants is the future of Pennsylvania not a now financing authority that is going to own Pennsylvania generation. I encourage a no vote. Thank you. Representative Kale. Thank you Madam Chair. And I do appreciate the comments and the recognition, the bipartisan recognition now that we do need additional baseload energy, that we do need more energy production. And just kind of going after, I'm glad the good Representative Williams from Delaware County got to go first, because I just want to add a little bit to what he said. Yes, this is not the answer. But I think it's important to note as well what got us into this situation to begin with. And to summarize it, I'm not going to go on a litany of issues, but to summarize it, it's government getting involved. It's government interjecting itself into the energy market, whether it's state governments in New Jersey and Maryland or our own state government in Pennsylvania. The reasons we don't have electricity production right now is because governments got way too involved in energy production. This is a step going towards more intervention into the energy production when, in fact, our answer should be stepping away from it and letting the market work. And for those reasons, I'm a no. Thank you, Representative. Chairman Causer.

Thank you, Chairman Couser. I believe right now our constituents, as I said, are facing skyrocketing bills. And our neighbors who sent us here are looking for relief. They are looking for someone to act. They recognize that we are a full-time legislature. And while not every solution comes from this legislative body, I believe there are many things that we can do to help bring people's bills down or at least to make sure they don't go even higher. One of the solutions is to get more power online. We also must make sure our existing grid is used to its maximum capacity. And I believe that the agency formerly known as Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, now known as PEFA, can play a key role in doing that. I do want to quickly address the purpose, the language that was cited by the representative. there is tremendous money available via the federal government, and those are tax dollars that our constituents sent via their federal taxes to D.C. Those are dollars that are available to us if we have a state authority that is able to own projects, and that's exactly what we are trying to do here. We are trying to change the language in this authority so that it is able to own projects, with the goal of bringing back some of that federal tax money to Pennsylvania for projects to get more energy online. I think that last piece, getting more energy online, is something that we all say that we would like to do, and I believe that we need to do everything we can to make that happen, like I said, with the goal of keeping people's bills as low as possible, making sure they don't go even higher. I think that's everything I wanted to say on it. I could talk about this authority for a long time, And I thank Representative Cale for joining me and serving on the board of this authority. Seeing no further questions or comments on the bill, we will now proceed to a vote. Will the committee report House Bill 2347, printers number 3143, sponsored by the chair, as amended? Those in favor of reporting the bill as amended will vote yes. Those opposed, no. Nick, please call the roll.

Yes.

Yes, by designation.

Yes.

Yes, by designation.

Yes, designation.

Yes, designation.

Yes, designation.

Yes, designation.

Yes, designation.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, designation.

Yes.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Om.

Thank you.