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How The Shapiro Administration Will Respond to Changing Federal Priorities
Despite the anticipated shift on environmental policies and enforcement that is expected at the federal level, we anticipate that Governor Shapiro’s administration will continue to prioritize its state-led environmental policies in Pennsylvania in the year ahead. The 2024-2025 budget includes $50 million in funding to clean waterways across Pennsylvania, $11 million to continue finding and capping abandoned wells, and $10.5 million to speed up the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) permitting processes. PADEP will launch two new programs in 2025 to address the Department’s permit backlog: the Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Economic Development (SPEED) program and Chapter 105 Joint Permit Pilot Program. The SPEED program provides permit applicants the ability to choose to have a PADEP-verified and qualified professional conduct an initial review of various environmental permit applications, which is anticipated to significantly reduce the total time between permit application and issuance. Likewise, the Chapter 105 Joint Permit Pilot Program aims to reduce errors in applications and cut the total time to process Water Obstruction and Encroachment General Permits by 63 days. These new programs will build upon the Shapiro administration's efforts in 2024 to modernize and streamline permitting in the Commonwealth, including the PAyback program, an online system that provides a money-back guarantee to applicants whose permits applications are not processed by PADEP in the allotted review period.
In March of 2024, Governor Shapiro also introduced his energy plan to lower utility bills and reduce carbon emissions across the state. This plan includes the Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Act (PACER) that would remove the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and establish a Pennsylvania-specific cap-and-invest program. Additionally, the Governor’s energy plan includes the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard (PRESS) intended to create a more reliable energy grid by incentivizing investments in state renewable energy, nuclear power, and natural gas projects. While the Pennsylvania Legislature did not vote on the 2024 bills introducing Governor Shapiro’s energy plan, the anticipated decreased focus on environmental policies and enforcement at the federal level may cause a resurgence of interest in similar state-led energy initiatives over the next four years.
