State Auditor General: Climate change could be costing Pa. hundreds of millions

Eugene DePasquale wants lawmakers to come up with a more comprehensive plan to improve infrastructure, and hopefully prevent future damage from severe weather.

• Katie Meyer/WITF
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  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

Rachel McDevitt / WITF

Demonstrators gather on the steps of the state capitol in Harrisburg to demand action on climate change on Friday, September 20, 2019.

(Harrisburg) — State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is attempting to quantify what climate change will cost Pennsylvania.

At the center of the Democrat’s latest report is a stat from the National Institute of Building Sciences: every dollar spent preventing natural disaster damage saves six dollars in recovery costs.

He said last year, his office found at least $261 million in statewide costs related to ​severe weather events that he said are connected to climate change. Almost half of the costs involve infrastructure problems.​

“Pennsylvanians often assume that federal disaster relief will help with recovery from flooding,” he said. “But because climate change brings about more intense, localized storms, often the damage is not widespread enough to qualify for that federal funding.”

Marie Cusick/StateImpact Pennsylvania

Outgoing Auditor General Eugene DePasquale discussing one of the many audits he has conducted over the past seven years.

Flooding isn’t the only cost driver when it comes to infrastructure. DePasquale also warned of landslides and degradation of old sewer systems, among other things. And he said he’s concerned about public health—for instance, increased rates of asthma.

Ultimately, he said, Pennsylvania doesn’t have a good enough comprehensive plan to address practical issues related to climate change, or to mitigate its own role in the problem.

“Pennsylvania is the nation’s fourth-largest contributor of greenhouse gases,” he said. “We can and must do better.”

In a press conference announcing the report, DePasquale pointed to Governor Tom Wolf’s Restore PA plan as a way to get the money needed to boost infrastructure.

The governor wants to borrow $4.5 billion to make improvements across the state, and use the money from a proposed ​severance tax on the natural gas industry to pay the debt back over 20 years or so.

GOP leaders have roundly rejected the proposal, and strongly oppose taxing gas companies.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect spelling of Auditor General DePasquale’s last name. 

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StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, and the Allegheny Front. Reporters Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan Phillips cover the commonwealth’s energy economy. Read their reports on this site, and hear them on public radio stations across Pennsylvania.

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