Harrisburg, PA – This week, Governor Josh Shapiro took new steps to protect Pennsylvanians from soaring electricity prices, pressing the grid operator’s leadership to extend existing consumer protections that would prevent billions of dollars in unjustified rate hikes.
On Monday, Governor Shapiro spoke directly by phone with PJM Chairman and Interim CEO, David Mills, to reinforce the urgent need to extend the current price cap — a move supported by all 13 PJM governors and the federal government through a Statement of Principles — and protect consumers from paying more for little additional reliability benefit. The Governor has publicly called on PJM’s interim CEO to extend the price cap, which has already prevented more than $18 billion in unjustified price hikes over the next two years and would save consumers up to an additional $27 billion through 2030 if extended. The Governor followed up with a letter on Tuesday to Chairman Mills.
“For years, PJM has moved too slowly to protect consumers, while power plant owners make billions and jack up costs for Pennsylvanians with too little accountability or transparency,” said Governor Shapiro. “Meaningful reforms are long overdue, and I’m putting PJM on notice: consumers should not be forced to pay billions more for no appreciable reliability benefit.”
PJM’s own stakeholder input underscores Governor Shapiro’s position. In a recent PJM survey, 95 percent of respondents supported extending the price cap, with the vast majority favoring extension at the current level or lower — a clear signal that consumers, states, and market participants agree affordability must be preserved while long-term reliability solutions are being implemented.
Extending the price cap at current levels will shield families and businesses from exorbitant electricity price increases while buying time for PJM and the states to implement the reforms envisioned by the Statement of Principles to strengthen reliability and affordability. Governor Shapiro has made clear that raising or eliminating the price cap in the near term would be unjust, unreasonable, and ineffective.
In his letter to the PJM Chairman, Governor Shapiro highlighted several key facts:
- Higher prices will not deliver new supply. PJM’s own analysis of last December’s auction found that without the price cap, consumers would have been charged an additional $9.9 billion while addressing only 12 percent of the current capacity shortfall — with most of the proceeds flowing to existing generators as windfall profits. An even worse outcome would occur in the upcoming June auction if the cap is raised or removed.
- Consumers should not be charged for benefits the market cannot deliver. New generation cannot realistically be built and brought online in time to justify higher prices in the next auction, making additional costs unfair to families and businesses.
- Raising the price cap now would be wasteful and unjust. With a long-term emergency reliability auction coming later this year, generators have little incentive to offer new capacity in the near-term auction, meaning higher prices would amount to an unfair transfer of billions of dollars from consumers to existing generators.
Governor Shapiro has also made clear that failure to extend the price cap will trigger further steps as Pennsylvania will continue to defend ratepayers through legal action.
In addition to pressing PJM to act, Governor Shapiro expanded his energy leadership by filing an amicus brief yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in support of FERC’s oversight authority and to ensure that no single entity is permitted to gain undue control over PJM’s planning processes. FERC’s oversight is essential to ensuring PJM remains independent and accountable to the 67 million people it serves across the region — not cowed by corporate interests.
Governor Shapiro continues to stand up to PJM and fight for reliable, affordable energy for 13 million Pennsylvanians:
In his 2026-27 proposed budget, Governor Shapiro introduced GRID, the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards to protect energy, environmental, and water resources, promote transparent community engagement from developers, and deliver local jobs and community development.
Earlier this year, the Governor secured federal support to extend PJM’s price cap, provide long-term support for new energy projects, make sure that data centers pay their fair share, and speed up PJM’s stalled interconnection queue. Governor Shapiro is also working to prevent utility companies from jacking up rates and earning excessive profits.
Governor Shapiro called on utility companies to end “black box” settlements, ban deceptive electricity contracts, eliminate reconnection junk fees, and extend and expand utility protections for low-income and vulnerable Pennsylvanians.
In January 2025, the Governor introduced his commonsense energy plan, the “Lightning Plan,” to build new clean, reliable, and affordable energy projects in the Commonwealth.
For years, Governor Shapiro has led the fight to stop rising electricity costs from being passed on to consumers and to get more energy onto the grid faster. In Pennsylvania, Governor Shapiro has paired PJM reform with action. Through his Lightning Plan and PA Permit Fast Track Program, he is cutting permitting delays, getting new energy projects online quickly, and positioning Pennsylvania — the nation’s second-largest energy producer and exporter — to build more power faster while keeping costs down.