While delaying clean energy projects, PJM calls for exempting dirty power plants from air pollution laws

By standing up for fossil fuel interests, PJM puts public and environmental health on back burner

The multistate electricity grid operator PJM Interconnection submitted a letter to the Trump administration Friday asking the White House to support Clean Air Act exemptions requested by regional electricity producers who produce energy from dirty fossil fuels including coal and fracked gas. 

PJM, which supplies electricity to 65 million Americans across 13 states, recently has come under scathing criticism for delays in hundreds of proposed clean energy projects that could deliver enough energy to power 58 million homes in the U.S. The ensuing bottleneck is expected to cost ratepayers in PJM’s service area a whopping additional $12.5 billion in one year alone to power their homes and businesses. PJM’s proposal was so egregious that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a complaint with federal regulators back in December 2024 in an attempt to stop skyrocketing bills.

Instead of moving swiftly to solve the region’s energy challenges by approving the hundreds of pending renewable energy projects, PJM is advocating to exempt outdated, expensive and dirty fossil fuel power plants from rules designed to protect people from harmful air and climate pollution. 

In response to PJM’s letter to the White House, PennEnvironment’s Executive Director David Masur released the following statement: 

“Instead of spending time trying to do an end-run around the laws that protect us from air pollution — while simultaneously increasing our reliance on the nation’s dirtiest energy sources — PJM should stop delaying the hundreds of clean energy projects that they’ve been dragging their feet on. 

“It’s outrageous that PJM has the gall to ask federal officials to turn a blind eye to illegal air pollution from the region’s dirtiest power plants. We have renewable energy projects ready to break ground and get constructed throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states PJM serves. We just need PJM to approve these delayed projects.

“PJM’s effort to continue our addiction to 19th century sources of energy that are dirty, dangerous, unreliable and expensive, instead of using safer, more reliable and more cost-effective 21st-century technologies such as solar and wind power and battery storage is appalling.” 

“Unfortunately, PJM is taking action to help the companies that want to continue our reliance on dirty fossil fuels, instead of working to bring cleaner and cheaper renewable energy projects online that are ready to be built today.”