Josh Shapiro Just Showed His True Colors on Energy by Selecting A Radical NRDC Attorney As His Czar to Attack PJM and Natural Gas

Pennsylvania Governor just appointed a radical environmental attorney from the NRDC as his energy czar, a fellow named Mark Szybist, who has also worked on Maryland’s failed energy policies. He is an RGGI fan, an enemy of natural gas, and a shill for the Great Green Grift.

Here is some of the slobbering news release from Shapiro announcing the appointment of attack dog Szybist (some emphasis added):

Today, Governor Josh Shapiro announced the appointment of experienced public interest attorney Mark Szybist to serve as Special Counsel for Energy Affordability, delivering on a promise made in the Governor’s 2026-27 budget address(opens in a new tab).

With more than 20 years of legal and policy experience in public utility, climate, and clean energy law, Szybist will be prepared on day one to advance the Shapiro Administration’s comprehensive strategy to stop utility companies from unfairly increasing their rates and needlessly raising costs for Pennsylvanians.

“I’m proud to appoint Special Counsel Szybist to serve as Pennsylvania’s newest watchdog on energy and utility affordability,” said Governor Shapiro. “During a time when Pennsylvanians are faced with rising costs across the board, I have complete confidence in Mark’s ability to hold utility companies accountable and protect hardworking Pennsylvanians from predatory rate increases. I look forward to working with him to ensure we are delivering for the good people of Pennsylvania.”

“I am honored to serve as Pennsylvania’s first Special Counsel for Energy Affordability and humbled by the trust Governor Shapiro has placed in me,” said Special Counsel Szybist. “I have spent my career standing up for consumers and as Special Counsel, I will work hard alongside partners like the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate to hold utility companies accountable and protect Pennsylvanians from needless cost increases. As I begin this work with Governor Shapiro, we’ll continue to have Pennsylvanians’ backs.”

Governor Shapiro’s appointment is effective immediately; Szybist began serving as Special Counsel in the Office of General Counsel today, April 27, 2026.

Mark Szybist is an energy and utility law attorney with 20 years of experience fighting for energy affordability, clean energy, and environmental protection. Immediately before assuming his current position with the Commonwealth, Mark served as a Senior Assistant People’s Counsel with the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, where he represented the interests of residential utility customers in gas, electricity, water, and telecommunications matters before the Maryland Public Service Commission.

Mark’s specialization in public utility law followed eleven years of advocacy as a clean energy and environmental attorney, most recently as senior attorney and Pennsylvania clean energy policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

This appointment is clearly a move to launch a full-scale attack on PJM and to emulate what New York has done, what Ed Miliband is doing in the UK, what Chris Bowen is doing in Australia, and what Gavin Newsom has already done in California. It is an ideological war on fossil fuels on behalf of special interest NGOs and the big green grifters who are in league together. Among these are the Rockefeller family, of course, which is who the NRDC represents.

David Hess provides the following resource links to Szybist’s background:

• Natural Resources Defense Council - Mark Szybist: Pennsylvania’s Natural Gas Power Problem, Part 1 - The Build Out

• Natural Resources Defense Council - Mark Szybist: Pennsylvania’s Natural Gas Power Problem, Part II - Cost And Risk

• Environmental Health Project - Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom - How Policy Decisions Failed To Protect Public Health And What We Can Do to Correct It [Mark Szybist - Reviewer]

• PennFuture - Mark Szybist Testimony In Support Of Legislation Giving The Public A Greater Role In Proposed Oil & Gas Development In State Forests, Parks

• FracTracker Alliance/PennFuture - Mark Szybist & George Jugovic, Jr.: Shale Gas Development On Public Lands

• Natural Resources Defense Council - Mark Szybist: Testimony Before The Independent Regulatory Review Commission in support of DEP Regulations Reducing Carbon Pollution From Power Plants (RGGI)

• Natural Resources Defense Council - Mark Szybist: Four Facts About Electricity Costs & RGGI In Pennsylvania [Supporting DEP Regulations Reducing Carbon Pollution From Power Plants]

• Natural Resources Defense Council - Mark Szybist: It’s Time For Pennsylvania To Act On Environmental Justice

• Clean Energy Advocate Mark Szybist: Pennsylvania At An Energy Crossroads: A Decade Of Shale Gas, And Where We Go Now At Lycoming College [Video]

One of Szybist’s advantages is that, due to his disarming soft-spoken personality, he can sound relatively moderate and reasonable, as he did in that video listed above, but those first two NRDC posts from 2019 tell all with the following quotes (emphasis added):

“PJM's markets make it easier for natural gas to make money than cleaner low-cost resources like wind, solar, and energy efficiency. Not only is there no price on carbon; PJM has designed its “capacity market” (which pays power plants to be available to produce electricity) in ways that uniquely favor gas plants. For example, PJM refuses to accept stand-alone bids for “seasonal capacity.” During the summer, this hurts both solar programs and demand response programs (the latter rely on turning down air conditioners en masse at critical times); during the winter, it hurts wind. And last year, PJM proposed changes that would push many resources subsidized by state renewable portfolio standards out of the capacity market.”

"To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to make dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Where the power sector is concerned, that means using energy much more efficiently, scaling up renewables, and putting a legally binding and steadily declining cap on carbon emissions.”

"Pennsylvania has taken some steps in this direction, and with the recent Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future plan and new Climate Action Plan in hand, the state has prepared itself well to take more. But the frenzied build-out of gas generation happening now is taking Pennsylvania in the wrong direction.”

“For future generations of Pennsylvanians, then, the rise of gas-fired generation in Pennsylvania is not a happy climate story.”

“The ‘ush to gas’ isn’t unique to Pennsylvania—earlier this year the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast that gas power plants would comprise most of new generation built in the U.S. between now and 2050. But Pennsylvania is an extreme case—and a challenge for NRDC and others working for a lower-carbon, less risky future based more on efficiency and renewables.”

“The Commonwealth can de-risk its power sector and create tens of thousands of new clean energy jobs by enacting aggressive but achievable goals for renewables and energy efficiency, putting declining market-based limits on carbon pollution, and using carbon-pricing revenue to fund programs that protect low-income Pennsylvanians.”

“There's legislation in Harrisburg to do this—from bills (SB 600 and HB 1195) to raise Pennsylvania’s renewables goals to 30 percent by 2030, to a bill (SB 232) to expand efficiency, to a bill—reportedly being developed—to create carbon pollution limits and a cap-and-invest program. We just need political will and leadership from Governor Wolf and the General Assembly. Without it, we’re building towards a dangerous and expensive future.”

There you go. These quotes could have come from Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom, or Ed Miliband. All took or have taken their constituencies into complete energy fail situations not unlike the German Energiewende, where electricity prices skyrocket, industries die, and blackouts threaten. Yet, Szybist believes this is the way to go. Consider, too, the following quotes:

RGGI Testimony (2021):

“Natural gas is not a bridge fuel. It is a destination fuel for utilities that want to keep burning fossil fuels.”

Green Stimulus Testimony (2020):

“We simply cannot rely on fracking and plastics to create a stronger economy.”

IRRC Comments (2020):

“mostly a lost decade, with the urgent need to address climate change either ignored or, perversely, presented as a reason we need to burn gas.”

Petrochemical Critique (2022):

“drillers are exporting record amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to lucrative overseas markets while keeping production low in order to keep profits high.”

This is who Josh Shapiro has assigned to attack PJM and take us all to green energy nirvana like California, Maryland, and New York.

#Szybist #Shapiro #Pennsylvania #NaturalGas #PJM

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