PA Tier II AEC Legislation Tracker: Live Bill Status

Pennsylvania Tier II AEC legislation: what is actually moving

Every bill below amends the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act (Act 213 of 2004) or the Tier II market it created. Status is dated. Where a bill is stalled, we say stalled — a tracker that reads as though everything is imminent is worse than no tracker.

The one-line summary as of 6 November 2026: nothing affecting Tier II has passed either chamber.

Stalled: PRESS (HB 501 / SB 501)

The Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard would rename and restructure Act 213, expand Tier I, create a Tier III for legacy thermal resources including waste coal and municipal solid waste, and add zero-emission credits for nuclear.

Status: Approved by the House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee 2 Jun 2025; laid on the table under House Rule 71 on 23 Mar 2026. Has not passed the House; not pending Senate action. Referred to Senate Environmental Resources & Energy 12 May 2025; no votes and no committee meetings since. PRESS was not included in the 2026-27 state budget. Critically, the 2025-26 session ends 30 November 2026, and with the Senate having scheduled no session days after June 2026, PRESS cannot pass this session — it would have to be reintroduced in the session beginning January 2027 — and the bill's printed effective date of 1 June 2026 has already passed, so any reintroduced version must re-date the entire tier schedule. Democrats won a Pennsylvania Senate majority on 3 November 2026, giving the party both chambers and the governorship from January 2027, which raises the prospect of an AEPS rewrite in the 2027-28 session without making one scheduled.

What it would mean for a Tier II credit holder: under PRESS, demand-side management, CHP and non-Tier I distributed generation stay in Tier II; fuel cells and biomass move down into Tier II from Tier I; storage qualifies only where it is co-located with a Tier I source and certified to deliver 10% of that source's nameplate capacity every hour for a 24-hour period; and waste coal, municipal solid waste, integrated combined coal gasification and pulping by-products move out to a new Tier III. We do not publish projected post-PRESS prices or supply-demand balances. The bill is tabled, its printed effective date of 1 June 2026 has already passed, and any reintroduction must re-date the entire schedule.

Worth tempering the inference from the Senate result. In post-election interviews, the renewable bills Senate Democrats named as likely to move first were community solar, battery storage, a utility rate-of-return measure, solar-ready warehouses and a bar on municipal blanket bans on renewable projects — all of which have already passed the House. Senator Nikil Saval described community solar as "low-hanging fruit." Updating the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards was discussed as something the incoming majority could take up rather than something already queued, and PRESS itself was characterised as the Governor's proposal rather than a stalled bill expected to move. A Tier II credit holder should read the November result as removing an obstacle, not as scheduling a rewrite.

- Solar holds a 0.5% share of Tier I under PRESS, but only through the 2030-31 compliance year. The bill swaps Act 213's open-ended "and thereafter" for a 31 May 2031 end date and names no solar figure after it, which would leave solar credits competing inside the general Tier I pool from June 2031. The separate solar compliance payment at 200% of average market value carries no end date.

Announced but not introduced: cutting the Tier II ACP to $15

A Senate co-sponsorship memo circulated in spring 2026 announces legislation to lower the Tier II alternative compliance payment from $45 to $15 per credit. The memo's argument is ratepayer cost: it cites PUC figures showing Tier II ratepayer impact growing from about $1 million in 2016 to $355 million in 2024, with roughly $500 million projected for 2026, and states that even at $15 waste coal and pumped storage generators would retain workable margins.

Status: no bill number exists. The memo records that it has not been submitted for introduction. The 2025-26 session ends 30 November 2026; any bill not enacted by then dies and must be reintroduced in the session beginning January 2027.

Two things to keep straight. First, the price figures in that memo are the sponsor's and do not match the PUC's published weighted-average series, which we maintain separately on our AEC market prices page. Second, the $45 figure sits in 52 Pa. Code § 75.65(b)(2) — a Commission regulation, not the statute — and it functions as a penalty that effectively caps price rather than as a formal ceiling. A statutory number would control over the regulation if one were enacted.

Not an AEPS bill, despite the name

SB 502 is regularly cited as an AEPS Tier II bill. It is not. It amends Title 27 to establish the Reliable Energy Siting and Electric Transition Board and concerns generation siting. It has no votes and no committee meetings recorded.

Also live, lower salience

• SB 372 — Clean Energy Standard and modernised AEPS with a zero-emissions carbon certificate program. Referred to Senate Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure 6 Mar 2025; no votes since.
• SB 699 — would add linear generators as an eligible AEPS resource.
• HB 2547 — amends AEPS definitions. Introduced 28 May 2026, referred to House Energy. Worth watching because definitional changes can move eligibility without touching a percentage.
• HB 2595 — AEPS interconnection reviews. Introduced 3 June 2026.
• SB 1019 and HB 2348 — solar siting and net metering respectively. Tier I-facing.

What this means if you hold or are registering credits

Legislative risk in this market is a price risk, not an eligibility risk. Nothing pending would disqualify a certified energy efficiency or CHP project, and no proposal removes efficiency or demand-side management from Tier II. What is at stake is the value of each credit.

And the market reprices on legislative momentum, not on enactment. Forward Tier II prices would move when a bill gets a committee vote, not when it takes effect — which is the argument for registering and monetising on a known schedule rather than banking credits against a higher future price. Our process page sets out that schedule.

What we do not claim

• That any of these bills will pass. None has cleared a chamber.
• Any projected post-reform Tier II price or obligation percentage.
• That the $45 ACP is statutory, or a formal price ceiling.
• Any Tier II supply, bank position or forward-supply figure. Obligation and retirement volumes are published; supply is not.

Sources

• Pennsylvania General Assembly bill histories, 2025-26 Regular Session
• PA PUC AEPS Annual Report, reporting year 2025
• 52 Pa. Code § 75.65