Last week, I joined a group of Pennsylvania advocates and policy experts for a press event on the critical situation facing businesses, community service organizations, and municipalities across the Commonwealth, one that demands our immediate attention and continued vigilance.
The Trump administration recently took the unprecedented step of withholding over $2.1 billion in Congressionally approved federal funding from Pennsylvania. This illegal action threatened our essential programs that lower electricity bills for families, create good-paying jobs, protect our communities, and clean up environmental hazards. The freeze impacted crucial programs, including abandoned mine reclamation, RISE PA clean manufacturing initiatives, the Solar for All program, home energy efficiency and weatherization assistance, and vital orphaned well plugging projects.
These are not just line items in a budget. They represent real investments in Pennsylvania’s communities, our workers, and our families.
Thanks to Governor Shapiro’s swift legal action and leadership, much of this funding has now been unfrozen. This is a significant victory for Pennsylvania, but our work isn’t done. While many state-administered programs have been restored, some local governments and organizations are still waiting for their promised federal support. This continued uncertainty is unacceptable.
The economic impact of this funding freeze was immediate and severe. Local contractors had to pause weatherization work. Environmental cleanup projects were put on hold. Job creating initiatives were thrown into chaos.
While we’ve managed to restore much of this funding, this disruption has created unnecessary hardship for Pennsylvania businesses and workers. My colleagues at last week’s press event, Pennsylvanians impacted by this funding freeze and experts who’ve modeled the benefit of this funding on our workers and the economy, shared their stories about what these programs mean for their communities. These are the real faces behind the numbers. Their stories illustrate exactly why this funding is so critical:
- Bobby Hughes, Executive Director at the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), detailed the multiple programs his organization runs across the Commonwealth, from capacity-building and research work in northern Schuylkill County, where a developing project is exploring geothermal potential on a reclaimed abandoned mine site, to the Shickshinny Creek in Luzerne County, where an ongoing watershed assessment is evaluating mine discharge pollution from the former Stackhouse Colliery. The Trump administration’s funding freeze has thrown EPCAMR “for a loop,” Bobby explained, and the organization is seeking new grant opportunities from local foundations to bolster capacity and ensure development of these critical projects and others—many in environmental justice communities—can continue.
- At the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District in Chester County, Director of Facilities James Weitzel is at a crossroads. The district is one of the few in the area that still maintains its own in-house bus fleet and in-house drivers, and last year, they received a large EPA grant to replace old school buses with a fleet of five new electric buses. But the federal funding freeze forced the district to postpone a vote on charging infrastructure. “While we remain hopeful that this situation will resolve itself favorably, we are facing a time constraint due to the necessity of replacing buses and the time required for electrical infrastructure installation,” James explained. If clarity on future funding doesn’t come soon, the district may be forced to abandon the project and instead purchase a fleet of new diesel buses, which would result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential operational and maintenance savings.
- Pennsylvania is often considered “ground zero” for the orphaned and abandoned well crisis, according to ORVI Senior Researcher Ted Boettner. The state is home to roughly 27,000 documented orphaned wells and an additional 341,000 undocumented orphan wells whose locations are unknown. Many of these wells are leaking harmful methane gas, contaminating water supplies and farmland, and potentially lowering property values for surface owners and impairing economic development throughout the Commonwealth. Unfreezing the $400 million earmarked in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for orphaned well cleanup is critical, but residual uncertainty has already led to the oil and gas service companies commissioned to remediate wells “holding back their operations,” Ted explained.
Across the Commonwealth, there are many reasons to be grateful for the progress that we’ve made to restart the flow of federal funding for critical programs. But still, we must remain vigilant. The Governor’s lawsuit continues because we need to ensure that all promised funding reaches Pennsylvania communities and that future funding remains secure. We cannot take anything for granted when it comes to protecting these vital investments. We also call on members of Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation who have not yet taken action on behalf of their constituents to join Governor Shapiro in this fight.
This is not a partisan issue. It’s about standing up for Pennsylvania families, workers and communities. It’s about ensuring that our congressionally appropriated funds reach their intended recipients and deliver the benefits our communities were promised.
It must be emphasized that this is still very much a developing situation. We must remain ready to defend these vital investments whenever they come under threat. And it’s important to understand how problematic uncertainty about already committed funding can be for communities across the Commonwealth—urban, suburban, and rural— whose ongoing work remains vital.