Today, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale held his first public hearing on the climate crisis. He has stated that Pennsylvania faces grave flooding risks among other problems and that we cannot rely on Washington to tackle the problem. If you didn’t know, last year the Centre Region where I live had record precipitation at about 64″. As Dr. Michael Mann pointed out during his presentation today, that record rainfall and humidity led to increased humidity, rainfall that has increased erosion and humidity that contributed significantly to mold issues including at our local schools. As the Commonwealth’s chief fiduciary watchdog, DePasquale is committed to digging into the issue, and learning how Pennsylvanians are adapting to changes and drawing down carbon emissions to mitigate the impacts.
Through my position at Penn State’s Sustainability Institute and our staff’s connections to the community, we were able to assist the Auditor General to bring Dr. Michael Mann to give testimony on global, national, and state-level impacts from climate change, a panel on local government, and a panel on farmers’ actions regarding climate change.
I also serve as the Chair of Ferguson Township’s Board of Supervisors and we were asked to provide testimony today. Below, you can read the testimony I authored and vice chair Steve Miller revised and delivered during the hearing. I have provided links to documents or stories about actions that we cited in the testimony. We were grateful to have the opportunity to provide testimony and more grateful that the Commonwealth’s top fiduciary officer is taking this issue as seriously as he can, properly naming it a crisis, and using his office to press the issue.
Unsaid in this statement is the deep gratitude that I feel for the support from Ferguson citizens who have worked with and pressed on our board and our staff who have been excellent.
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To: Auditor General Eugene DePasquale
From: Steve Miller, Vice Chair of the Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors
Peter Buckland, Chair of the Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors
Brandi Robinson, Chair of the Ferguson Township Climate Action Committee
Re: Climate Hearing
Date: 3.14.2019
Mr. DePasquale and members of the public,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today regarding Ferguson Township’s climate actions. Over the last three years, the Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors has taken adaptation to, and mitigation of, human-caused climate change seriously. While we are early in our process and progress to date is modest, our aspirations are high, and we believe that our progress can serve as a positive example.
Ferguson Township is a Home Rule municipality located west of State College Borough and Penn State’s University Park campus. In 2012, our citizens passed a referendum that incorporated a Community and Environmental Bill of Rights into our Home Rule Charter. That bill declares rights to clean water, pure air, the integrity of natural communities, and a sustainable energy future. We have prioritized alternative and renewable energy and land conservation in our Strategic Plan. In addition, we have consciously and consistently recognized Article 1, Section 27 in our policy and budgetary decisions for the past three years.
Actions that we have taken in accord with these priorities include:
In June 2014, The Ferguson Board passed Resolution 2017-14, which was submitted to you on Tuesday. This resolution is a call for the Township to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, through a plan that is fair, economically feasible, and transparent. Recognizing the scope of the challenge, it commits the Township to work in cooperation with other organizations in business, education, and governments. To facilitate the achievement of these goals, an ad hoc Climate Action Committee has been established. The committee is currently concluding a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and will subsequently draft a climate action plan. Ms. Brandi Robinson, who is here today, chairs the committee.
Since 2017, this resolution has guided our decisions regarding two building projects. First, we are nearing design completion for a LEED Gold Public Works Building that includes plans for a rooftop solar photovoltaic array, innovative stormwater features, and onsite habitat restoration. The project is going to bid this summer. Second, we have committed township funding for a solar array on the roof of the pavilion in Whitehall Road Regional Park, a multi-municipal recreational facility. This commitment is in addition to our share of the municipal funding.
Earlier this year, we adopted a Sourcewater Protection Overlay District. This zoning legislation recognizes the impacts of a changing climate and takes measures to protect both our water and our climate. These measures include a prohibition of liquid petroleum pipelines as well as horizontal drilling and high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Beyond these three actions, we are currently exploring a regional intergovernmental solar power purchase agreement, researching a stormwater impact fee, and joining the Clean Air Council and others as petitioners to the Environmental Quality Board for a carbon cap and trade system in Pennsylvania. Documents related to any of the aforementioned policies, designs, petitions or budget items can be made available.
Municipal governments, as you know, are constrained by provisions of state code. Board members have expressed concerns about a number of climate-related issues that are in the purview of the state. These include a potential price on carbon, the expansion of hydraulic fracturing and gas pipelines and their dangerous methane emissions, increasing the solar and wind requirements in the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, energy efficiency in building codes, farm related emissions, and electric vehicle infrastructure. The funding of the Department of Environmental Protection is insufficient to address issues related to fracking and climate change. At the federal level, rollbacks of regulation and research at the Environmental Protection Agency threaten the environment of Pennsylvania, along with that of the rest of the nation.
In general, we believe that the capacity to plan for climate change is sorely lacking at all levels and that funding and resolve to support the necessary rapid action are missing. Ferguson Township is one of 2,560 municipalities in Pennsylvania. If it acts alone, our accomplishments, while significant, will barely make a dent in state, national, and planetwide threats. But we need not act alone. If small places act together, they can become a big place that can effect positive changes at the scale required. How will the state make that happen? Mr. DePasquale, we hope that our participation in this process can help you make a case that all levels of government in Pennsylvania and across our nation have a role to play. It is an all-hands-on-deck effort. We feel that we have taken a leadership role within Pennsylvania and urge the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to take a leadership role in national efforts to address climate change issues.
Thank you.
Peter Walks for Democracy 