By: Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania Field Organizer
Date: May 1, 2026
About: PJM Price Collar and Cap
Moms Clean Air Force is a community of over 107,000 Pennsylvania caregivers united
against air pollution - and the urgent crisis of our changing climate - to equitably
protect children’s health. Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the
proposed PJM price collar approach.
Moms Clean Air Force believes PJM’s existing price collar and cap should be
extended without any increases. Additionally, moving forward, reforms need to occur
to adjust the capacity market auctions to protect families from unnecessary rate
increases and to address energy reliability and affordability issues by prioritizing
clean power generation and battery storage to meet the growing energy demands
of data centers.
PJM must put families, health, and affordability first, not fast track and prioritize fossil
fuel fired power plants across the Commonwealth. We were encouraged to see the
work of Governors across PJM, like Pennsylvania’s own Governor Shapiro, to create a
pathway for affordable energy. Consumer protections and clean energy are vital to
protect the health and financial wellbeing of families.
Families across Pennsylvania are seeing climbing costs that make this moment
particularly difficult. According to Consumer Affairs' July 2025 analysis, Pennsylvania
prices in the “15 grocery categories analyzed are up 8.2% in the last 12 months, the
nation’s highest hike.” Families who secure their health insurance through the
Affordable Care marketplace will see their premiums increase by nearly 22% starting
in January.
According to an NRDC analysis, PJM’s most recent capacity auctions increased
ratepayer rates by 30% in 2025 and will increase them another 5% in 2026. Of note,
“Prices went up for two reasons: ever increasing demand from data centers and
lower reliability from gas-fired power plants. The amount of available generation
decreased almost entirely because of gas plant reliability problems, not power plant
retirements.”
As food, healthcare and now energy costs become astronomically more expensive,
families are forced to make impossible choices. PJM continues to prioritize fossil fuel
fired power generation at the expense of families, which was again made apparent
after winter storm Fern. Proposed rate hikes will pull millions of dollars from working
families’ budgets, even as costs for groceries, rent, childcare, and healthcare keep
climbing. 2024 Census data show 1 in 4 adults in Pennsylvania, over 2 million people,
live in a household where they were unable to pay their energy bill in full, putting
them at risk of having their electricity disconnected.
When electricity becomes unaffordable, health suffers. Families in older, inefficient
homes (especially renters) may reduce air conditioning or heating during extreme
temperatures, putting children, seniors, pregnant people, and those with asthma or
heart conditions at serious risk. High utility bills force impossible choices. No parent
should have to choose between keeping the lights on and buying groceries, filling a
prescription, or paying rent.
Affordability and reliability are only possible through a diversification of energy
achieved by prioritizing clean renewable energy and battery storage. The truth for
Pennsylvania families? The cost of high electricity bills is so much larger than simply
tightening family budgets.
Local communities are being asked to foot the air pollution bill as PJM encourages
fossil fuel power generation rather than diversifying the grid with clean energy.
Adding to this burden, in the Pennsylvania House Energy Committee meeting on
January 20th, which focused on affordability, PJM’s Asim Haque said the plan until
more generation can be added to the grid in 2032/2033 is that data centers will be
asked to use onsite backup power generation in times of high stress to the grid like
extreme cold or heat.
Asking data centers to use onsite backup generators, often powered by extremely
dirty diesel, to run during peak demand is another serious air pollution problem.
While ensuring local communities don’t see electricity blackouts is vital, bringing
clean energy online as soon as possible is just as important. Affordable, reliable,
clean energy and battery storage brought quickly online would lead to less local
fenceline pollution.
PJM can ensure Pennsylvania families continue to maintain the dignity of being able
to reasonably afford their electricity bills by embracing the proposed price cap and
ensuring that affordability, health protection, and equity are central to every decision.
Choosing to give fossil fuel fired power generation priority on the backs of
hardworking Pennsylvania families cannot be the answer PJM chooses. If we don’t
get this right - by centering clean power and battery storage that keeps our air
cleaner and makes our grid more affordable and reliable- the health and wellbeing
of our families will be in serious jeopardy.