Is Josh Shapiro the future of the Democratic Party? He certainly wants to be, but he just failed an early test.

This is the reality of the supposed permitting reform that our governor unveiled in November. Shapiro created a “fast track” program to get bureaucratic roadblocks out of the way of much-needed infrastructure projects in the state. The political calculus is clear: Shapiro wants to be seen as a moderate–someone who will rush to the middle and deliver growth and jobs. That’s a new direction for the Democratic Party after Kamala Harris lost the presidential race on a more progressive platform.

But the governor’s new policy is little more than political window-dressing. His new fast-track program gives him the power to decide which infrastructure projects to approve–and which ones to kill. In other words, he can choose the projects that are most likely to benefit him politically, instead of clearing the way for the infrastructure that Pennsylvania needs most.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate are willing to work with Shapiro to reform permitting overall. If he was really taking a moderate course, the governor would reach across the aisle to free all of Pennsylvania’s infrastructure from crushing red tape. With more than 160,000 regulations on the book, Pennsylvania is the 14th most-regulated state in the country.

Instead, the governor is going it alone, while expanding his power to pick winners and losers. There’s nothing moderate about that.

Philadelphia shows how this supposed reform will work in practice. Shapiro announced the fast-track program at the Bellwether District, the 1,300-acre development site at the city’s old refinery. The governor says that speeding up permits will help the district create 19,000 new jobs. That’s a big deal in a city like Philly. It’s also a big deal for the governor politically, since Philly is the heart of his political support base. No wonder Shapiro wants to speed up infrastructure projects there.

To be clear, the Bellwether District’s success is important. Philadelphia needs the jobs and the old refinery site needs to be put to productive use. But what about the many other infrastructure projects across the state?

What about the natural gas plants that have been killed by permitting delays? What about the U.S. Steel mills that have gone to other states because of our state’s bureaucracy? What about the energy pipelines and highway projects in regions that don’t support Shapiro as much as Philadelphia? Will they get the same fast-track treatment, or will they die the slow death that goes hand-in-hand with Pennsylvania’s notoriously broken permitting system?

The warning lights are already flashing. The governor’s decision to bail out SEPTA with funding from rural highway projects shows that he’s all too willing to prioritize his political allies over the people of Pennsylvania. With a history like that, it seems likely that Shapiro will fast-track permits for projects supported by labor unions and environmentalists, while ignoring things like natural gas pipelines that could lower utility bills. Another telling sign: When he announced the fast-track program, the governor was surrounded by political allies like labor union representatives–but no one from the energy industry.

Andrew J. Lewis, a former Pennsylvania state representative, is president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.