Opinion: PA House Bill 502 Must Be Scrapped
- Barbara Wendeborn Brandom and Mark Osiecki
- Jul 9
- 3 min read
Recently, Rep. Mandy Steele, vice chair of the PA House Energy Committee spoke out in defense of PA House Bill 502. The bill purports to ensure electric power system reliability and limit adverse effects on human health, safety and the environment by establishing a board that would accelerate the approval and siting of large energy generating and storage facilities across the commonwealth.
Steele, a Democrat and the bill’s lead sponsor, justifies the bill by predicting that Pennsylvania’s residents and businesses won’t be able to afford their electric bills unless supply rises to meet demand. Key to her defense of the bill is her relationship with PJM Interconnection LLC, the nation’s third largest power grid operator.
“PJM is telling us that demand is rising and that we have to do something, or we are going to be in a full-grown crisis in Pennsylvania,” Steele said. ”What has worked in other states with a similar crisis is a state siting board.”
It’s disconcerting that Steele takes her cues from PJM, an operator that seriously lags in adding renewable energy. Only 7% of its total generation comes from renewables with the rest coming from carbon-emitting and nuclear sources. Unfortunately, HB 502 does nothing to mandate the development of renewable sources of energy. Rather, the amended bill would allow the fast-tracked approval of large energy projects within 120 days of meeting broad-brushed criteria.
It’s ironic that the board created by HB 502 is referred to as the “Reliable Energy Siting and Electric Transition Board” or RESET…a cheerful acronym implying the dawn of a new day for energy development in Pennsylvania. But there’s nothing innovative in this bill that aligns it with the state’s move towards a regulated transition away from carbon-emitting sources. Indeed, HB 502 could take Pennsylvania in the opposite direction.
HB 502 may make an exemption for private development of energy supplies, such as Tesla recently executed in Georgia. It says nothing about how private energy development projects will be reviewed, but such projects could be at least as polluting as those that produce energy for public consumption and therefore add health risks for their neighbors. HB 502 may require a public meeting as well as public notification through the Pennsylvania Bulletin. But the RESET Board is empowered at its whim to prevent individuals or groups to attend its public meetings. Municipalities will have no ability to prevent the construction of any industry that supplies or stores energy once the RESET Board has issued “a certificate of reliable energy supply” for that project.
There may be an option to submit written comments, and it may be required that the RESET Board publish their response to comments and discussions from a public meeting. However, this would happen at the time the decision is made by the RESET Board. Such accelerated subversion of transparent due diligence will undermine the thoroughness of environmental impact assessments and seriously diminish the voice of local municipalities in the siting of energy projects, especially if the Board restricts access to its meetings.
The safety and rights of neighbors of the development, of all residents and of wildlife are inadequately protected.
Steele is quick to justify this bill based on other states that have enacted fast-tracked energy siting legislation. However, she fails to mention that many of those appropriately prioritize renewable energy projects over carbon-emitting ones. HB 502 neglects to do so. That’s wrong. Legislation of this kind must be directly harmonized with the renewable mandates of Pennsylvania’s PRESS bill.
Accelerating energy projects and diminishing mandated municipal due process as HB 502 intends to do is a step backwards for Pennsylvania energy policy, especially considering that its power grid operator has demonstrated little resolve in expanding its renewables energy portfolio.
Any legislation that places the commercial interests of energy generators well ahead of Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air, land and water…and this most certainly includes HB 502…must be scrapped.
Submitted by,
Barbara W. Brandom, MD (retired)
Concerned Healthcare Providers of Pennsylvania, member
