Shapiro’s New Energy “Watchdog” Is a Fox Guarding the Henhouse

Gov. Josh Shapiro claims he wants to make energy more affordable for Pennsylvanians. So, why did he just hire a climate activist who has dedicated his career to advancing the very policies driving electricity prices higher?

In April, Shapiro appointed Mark Szybist as Pennsylvania’s first special counsel for energy affordability. The press release announcing the appointment paints the picture of a populist hero who will “hold utility companies accountable” and stop them from “jacking up rates.”

Ironically, Szybist’s agenda is the one that will jack up electricity prices for Pennsylvanians.

Szybist brings more than two decades of experience as a green-energy lobbyist. For more than a decade, he served as a senior attorney and clean-energy policy director at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the most aggressive anti-fossil-fuel organizations in the country. Szybist also worked in a variety of state-level roles in Maryland, a state that has legally committed itself to a net-zero carbon output by 2045.

He also dedicated significant professional energy toward a controversial topic in Pennsylvania: the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Szybist testified several times on behalf of the cap-and-trade scheme that would have imposed an illegal carbon tax on Pennsylvania energy producers.

“Natural gas is not a bridge fuel,” Szybist said during his pro-RGGI testimony in 2021. “It is a destination fuel for utilities that want to keep burning fossil fuels.”

His writings and public testimony reveal an ideologue deeply committed to undermining Pennsylvania’s energy sector. He declared that Pennsylvania “simply cannot rely on fracking and plastics to create a stronger economy.” He described Pennsylvania’s most-productive years, which included the Marcellus Shale Boom, as “mostly a lost decade” because the commonwealth leaned into its competitive advantage as an energy-producing state.

Szybist has also been a consistent advocate for restructuring PJM, the grid operator that keeps the lights on for 65 million people across Pennsylvania, 12 other states, and the District of Columbia. His goal, per his own published work, is to tilt PJM’s market rules away from reliable natural gas and toward intermittent wind and solar. Anyone who has watched what those policies have done to electricity rates in California and New York should be alarmed.

Shapiro wants Pennsylvanians to believe this appointment is about protecting them from “greedy utility companies.” Instead, he created a new, powerful government role and handed the keys to a true believer in the Green New Deal.

The appointment reveals a deliberate pivot toward the policies that drive up nationwide energy costs. Pennsylvania’s gas workers, manufacturers, and working families on fixed incomes will be paying the price—and Shapiro’s empty “affordability” narrative won’t change that.

(For a more thorough analysis of his resume, be sure to read Thomas Shepstone’s analysis in “Energy Security and Freedom.”)