The launch kicks off with a statewide digital ad blitz designed to put energy bills at the center of the 2027 governor’s race-- driving Pennsylvanians to explore the campaign’s affordability-first policy platform as families look to candidates to answer what they’ll actually do to bring costs down.
“Pennsylvania families are getting hammered by energy bills, and they deserve real savings,” said Katie Blume, Political and Legislative Director for Conservation Voters of PA. “Building a Brighter PA is about clean, locally-built energy that lowers costs, powers what's next, and keeps more money in people's pockets.”
The campaign warns that rising demand, driven by data centers, new manufacturing, and extreme weather, combined with an outdated grid and a slow interconnection queue, threatens to push bills to record highs.
Its platform rests on two pillars:
-- Lower Energy Bills & Protect Families and Businesses — remove barriers to low-cost clean energy, modernize the grid, expand efficiency, hold utilities accountable, and require large energy users like data centers to bring their own new clean energy.
-- Build Jobs & a Clean-Energy Economy — a 35% clean-energy-by-2035 target with enforceable goals and union jobs, smarter siting with shared community benefits, cleanup of fossil-fuel-impacted sites, and an end to costly subsidies and loopholes.
"An alarming number of Pennsylvania families are being priced out of basic, life-essential energy service, forced to choose between keeping the lights on and putting food on the table. The good news is we know what works: smarter oversight can rein in excessive costs, protect consumers, and lower bills. What we need now is the political will to finish the job,” said Liz Marx, Executive Director of the Public Utility Law Project.
“Advanced distribution technology helps utilities unlock the capacity they already have instead of having to build costly new infrastructure, so projects can connect faster. That's a real affordability win,” said Molly Vitek-Scott, Director of Commercial Execution at Switched Source, a distribution automation company helping distributed energy sources thrive by providing grid-enhancing technology that unlocks capacity and improves reliability and resilience on the distribution grid. “We see a strong opportunity in Pennsylvania for dynamic grid solutions like ours.”
"The biggest challenge facing Pennsylvania's future isn't renewables; it's delay,” said Justine Hackimer, Industrial Decarbonization Program Manager at Ohio River Valley Institute. “We rank 49th in the country for clean, renewable energy, and every year we wait, families pay more, and our state loses ground. A 35% clean-energy-by-2035 target is a jobs plan and an affordability plan as much as it is an energy plan-- with thousands of good union jobs in solar, wind, and battery storage built right here in Pennsylvania, and real savings for families."
The coalition is calling on candidates for governor to commit to an affordability-first energy agenda.
The full platform, and the first ad are available at the Building a Brighter PA website.
NewsClips:
-- WESA - Rachel McDevitt: A.I. Data Center-Driven Electricity Demand In PA, Surrounding States Outstripping Supply, Keeping Prices High
-- Utility Dive: PJM Market Monitor: Data Centers Drove $6.3 Billion In July PJM Generation Capacity Auction Costs; Over Last 4 Auctions - $29.4 Billion In Costs
-- PA Capital-Star: PA Solar For Schools Program Renewed For Third Year To Cut Energy Costs
-- Pittsburgh Business Times: Pittsburgh-based Exus Renewables Secures $356 Million For 2 Wind Projects In Cambria County As Demand From Data Centers Accelerates
-- Utility Dive: Natural Gas Power Generation Decreased 4% In 2025; Coal-Fired Power Plant Generation Increased 13%; Wind & Solar Generation Increased 3% and 34%
[Posted: July 21, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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