On behalf of the Clean Power PA Coalition, a group of more than 40 clean energy, conservation, and community organizations committed to protecting Pennsylvania’s environment and powering its economy through clean energy, we’re thrilled—but not surprised—that the EPA has recognized the vast potential to cut harmful pollution and create new jobs in Pennsylvania’s “Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania” (RISE PA) program, and that our state has been entrusted with this major grant to get that job done.
With this federal investment, combined with the stellar leadership of the Shapiro administration and our many partners, Pennsylvania industry is primed to cut up to 5.3 million metric tons of carbon pollution by 2030 while creating thousands of new jobs. And not just any jobs, but solid, family-sustaining union jobs that pay, at a minimum, the local prevailing wage and that will prioritize local hires and apprenticeships. RISE PA will also focus on projects that improve the health of communities in close proximity to industrial pollution, which tend to suffer from increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses.
Heavy industry has long been a major job creator for Pennsylvania, but also one of its biggest sources of climate pollution. Like other sectors, it needs a catalyst to help itself break out of this long-accepted but unhealthy trade-off. RISE PA will serve as the catalyst needed to not only help industry become cleaner and create more jobs, but also to help it reap dramatic energy cost savings and become more profitable.
The RISE PA program would achieve significant emissions reductions in the hard-to-decarbonize industrial sector by prioritizing decarbonization levers. Ohio River Valley Institute research identifies energy efficiency measures and electrification as the highest-impact decarbonization levers in the short term, with demonstrated potential for lasting job and economic growth. These levers capitalize on established, market-ready technologies, including industrial heat pumps and thermal energy storage with significant co-benefits, that generate significant cost savings for manufacturers and drive downstream decarbonization by incentivizing a cleaner power grid.
The RISE PA program additionally offers a Community Benefits Bonus for eligible projects located in disadvantaged communities and a Fair Labor Bonus for projects that make collective bargaining commitments and dedicate resources for local hiring and workforce development.
Taken together, these requirements and incentives ensure that RISE PA would drive meaningful pollution reductions while creating good jobs and a durable career pipeline for workers. Evergreen and ORVI commissioned analyses to study the full potential of those climate and economic impacts. Our findings show that CPRG funding for RISE PA would have sweeping benefits for both climate and jobs across the Commonwealth. RISE PA is expected to reduce Pennsylvania’s industrial sector emissions by nearly 9.2 million metric tons of CO2e by 2050, creating 6,000 new direct and indirect jobs (in job-years) in the process, BW research shows.
RISE PA is truly a win-win-win-win – for the environment, Pennsylvania workers, frontline communities, and heavy industry itself. On behalf of the Clean Power PA Coalition, we thank the Biden Administration and the EPA, Governor Shapiro and his team, and our business, labor, and environmental partners for their vision and commitment to RISE PA and congratulate them on a job well done.