Climate change town hall to convene in Oakland

The climate change issue is heating up in Pennsylvania this week.

The state on Tuesday became one of 29 states and cities in a suit seeking to prevent the Trump administration from weakening restrictions on coal- burning power plants. It was filed the same day that President Donald Trump was touring the Shell cracker plant in Potter, Beaver County, that will turn a fossil fuel — natural gas liquids — into plastic.

And Wednesday, U. S. Rep. Mike Doyle will host a “Climate Crisis Town Hall” at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland.

The meeting, scheduled from 6: 30 to 8: 30 p. m., will feature panels discussing the social, economic and political response to climate change. Mr. Doyle, D- Forest Hills, will provide an update on federal actions to address climate change, with time allotted for audience members to ask questions.

“This is an important issue, one we need to start the discussion on and one we need to have to build support for whatever we decide to do legislatively,” said Mr. Doyle, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the bipartisan Climate Change Caucus. “Addressing climate change is the most important thing we can do for our kids and our grandchildren and the planet we all live on.”

Mr. Doyle said science is clear in saying carbon emissions must be “net zero by 2050” if the planet is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, but “for the last eight years, Republicans have done nothing.”

“I hope this town hall can be educational about what’s being done on the local and state levels and what are the possible pathways to net carbon zero by 2050, and what changes need to happen to get on that pathway,” he said.

It won’t be an easy road, he said, but solutions are possible if coalitions are built, technology is developed and government programs are implemented in stages, in much the same way Social Security and Medicare programs were developed over time.

“We need to do the things that can be done and then build on those programs,” Mr. Doyle said.

“We need to get the train moving and then add to it.”

The first panel, moderated by Joylette Portlock, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, will discuss “moving to a greener economy.” It includes Jay Whitacre, director of the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University; Jenna Cramer, executive director, Green Building Alliance; Craig Glazer, vice president of PJM Interconnection LLC, the region’s electric transmission organization; Keith Johnson, co- director of the Center for Sustainable Transportation at the University of Pittsburgh; and Ron Gdovic, chief executive officer of WindStax Energy.

The second panel, moderated by Jamil Bey, chief executive officer of UrbanKind, will focus on state and local action on climate change and include Ashleigh Deemer, of PennEnvironment, a statewide environmental advocacy organization; Patrice Tomcik, Moms Clean Air Force; Grant Ervin, Pittsburgh chief resilience officer and assistant director of city planning; and Zaheen Hussain, sustainability coordinator in Millvale.

The lawsuit that Pennsylvania signed on to, filed in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by 22 states and seven cities, argues that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency should not have replaced the Obama- era Clean Power Plan. That plan had for the first time limited emissions of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

The suit accuses the Trump administration of ignoring the EPA’s responsibility to limit greenhouse gases, claiming it could actually increase air pollution emissions by prolonging the life of old coal- burning power plants.