A group of elected and other government officials, climate and health group leaders and a trade union rose Tuesday morning to pledge their support for RISE PA, Pennsylvania’s application for funds from the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program.
At stake in the competitive program is up to $475 million for targeted investments to cut industrial pollution and uplift “fenceline” communities that experience more harm from that pollution and climate change while at the same time creating thousands of quality jobs across the state, according to Evergreen Action, which organized the gathering and streamed it on YouTube.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s plan would protect the environment and also create “a durable pipeline for workers,” DEP interim acting Secretary Jessica Shirley told the group at the Collier union hall of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 57.
She said the plan would create as many as 6,000 jobs while cutting 5.2 tons of carbon emissions by 2030, supporting communities in multiple ways.
Moms Clean Air Force Pennsylvania Field Organizer Vanessa Lynch referenced one when she said, “Pennsylvania families are living with climate disruptions” — such as the torrential storms that hit her yard earlier Tuesday morning.
Those harms as well as health problems from industrial pollution disproportionately affect people of color and others who live near sources of industrial pollution, she stressed. “It’s time to clean up the industrial sector’s pollution, and our children’s future depends on it.”
Making industry more energy efficient and transitioning more of it to electric power still allows for a bright future for skilled workers such as those in the IUPAT, said its local president and director of training, Brian Herbinko. “This is a no-brainer collaboration that will help our workers, businesses and the environment” rather than pit jobs vs. the environment.
“We can have both,” said Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, who promised that the county will “do anything we can to get [RISE PA] across the finished line.”
Evergreen Action State Program Director Justin Balik described the plan as a “historic and unprecedented opportunity to transform industry in Pennsylvania” and said the state’s application “should be a serious contender” for the “largest funding tier.”
Afterward, he explained that Pennsylvania was one of 45 states to win a $3 million federal grant to come up with a climate plan. This applications for this second competitive round of grants was due April 1 and he expects will be decided sometime this summer or fall.
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
