Campaign launched to protect clean energy jobs in Pennsylvania

August 9, 2011

Clean energy campaigners in Pennsylvania have warned that programs supporting renewable energy development in the state are under threat.

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) said yesterday that word of program cuts were now leaking out from the administration of state governor Tom Corbett.

In response, the Harrisburg-based group has launched a campaign “to protect clean energy and Pennsylvania jobs”.

Jan Jarrett, PennFuture’s president and CEO, said more than 106,000 jobs rely on the clean energy industry in the Keystone State.

“These program cuts and legislative attacks threaten to kill these good, family-sustaining jobs,” she said.

“We cannot stand by while our homegrown clean energy industry is destroyed and its good jobs are killed.”

PennFuture says word from the Republican Governor’s administration is that the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of Energy and Technology Deployment is set to be disbanded, while other clean energy-linked agencies were also set to go.

The group also claimed that executive agencies in the state will be banned from entering into contracts for clean energy.

It now aims to enlist clean energy businesses in the state to help counter any threat to state support.

Christina Simeone, director of the PennFuture Energy Center for Enterprise and the Environment, said: “Our campaign will enlist the clean energy businesses that have built more than 4,000 solar installations, 16 large wind farms, the many farmers who are installing biodigesters, and the businesses that are installing effective energy and money saving measures. We will also engage concerned citizens and clean energy consumers across the Commonwealth, many of whom have personally invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

Governor Corbett took office in January, with pledges to cultivate Pennsylvania’s coal resources, drill for natural gas and support “cleaner, greener” biodiesel and nuclear power.

He also pledged to take the Department of Environmental Protection “back to basics”, stating: “DEP’s core mission is to help people comply with Pennsylvania laws and regulations. The agency must be refocused to be more efficient and serve Pennsylvania better.”

The Governor is currently on a cost-cutting mission after signing a budget in June that cuts state government spending by $1.2 billion.