January 13, 2004

Statement By Clean Air Council Calling On Governor Rendell To Show Leadership On Global Warming

"Good morning. My name is Brooks Mountcastle, and I am Clean Air Council's Harrisburg Director. Clean Air Council is a statewide, member-supported environmental advocacy and education organization with offices in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Delaware. Clean Air Council is pleased to stand here with Representative Greg Vitali to call on Governor Edward Rendell to show leadership on global warming by: requiring the state to develop a greenhouse gas emission stakeholder process; to join New York Governor George Pataki in a regional global warming mitigation strategy; and to support a renewable portfolio standard.

Since Pennsylvania accounts for 1 percent of global warming gases globally, it is critically important that Pennsylvania begins to roll up its sleeves and develops an up-to-date, comprehensive, accurate and detailed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory for the Commonwealth and develop an appropriate GHG mitigation plan. Such an approach will ensure Pennsylvania retains its position as a leader in the northeastern United States in creating and marketing clean, renewable technologies. A greenhouse gas inventory used to its full advantage should uniquely position Pennsylvania businesses to seize on emissions trading and credit programs that are currently being considered. The inventory could serve as a blueprint for a series of detailed action items that Pennsylvania could implement over the coming years. With such a blueprint, Pennsylvania can move forward with a GHG mitigation strategy that makes sense to all Pennsylvanians, including the business community.

As the previous speakers alluded to, global warming has caused and will continue to cause serious economic disruption if fossil fuel emissions continue unchecked. It has been over eight years since a panel of 2500 scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global warming is partly caused by man-made activity. Still, global warming has its skeptics. The increased number of West Nile Encephalitis cases in Pennsylvania over the past few summers, the record heat in the 1990's, the $272 billion in international insurance claims in the 1990's from severe weather and flood catastrophes - three times more than the previous decade - are the kinds of effects that experts and computer models have predicted would be caused by global warming. The same scientists predict that world temperatures will increase somewhere between 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100.

What will global warming mean to the public health of Pennsylvania residents? If we stay the course, Pennsylvania will see an increase in air pollution and a higher frequency and severity of asthma attacks, emphysema, bronchitis, and other lung diseases. This translates to higher health insurance premiums, missed work and missed school days. City dwellers living in poorly ventilated housing or those lacking air conditioning will be especially hard hit during heat spells. Seniors and others with compromised immune systems are also vulnerable.

Pennsylvania should begin to shift away from a fossil fuel-powered economy and move in the direction of cleaner, renewable forms of electricity to power its service economy and drive its transportation sector. A key first step is for Pennsylvania to adopt a regional global warming mitigation strategy and a renewable portfolio standard, which Clean Air Council has urged the General Assembly to adopt since the early days of electric restructuring."

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Clean Air Council is a member- supported, non-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting everyone's right to breathe clean air. The Council works through public education, community advocacy, and government oversight to ensure enforcement of environmental laws. The Council's team of attorneys, community organizers, and policy analysts focuses its efforts on the following key areas: Clean Air Act, Clean Energy, Sustainable Transportation, Waste Reduction and Recycling, Indoor Air Quality, and Children's Environmental Health.