Smaller Build Back Better framework may impact priorities Biden hyped in Scranton last week

Rachel McDevitt

Recent Stories

I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.

My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.

I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.

I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

Susan Walsh / AP Photo

President Joe Biden speaks about his infrastructure plan and his domestic agenda during a visit to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

October 29, 2021 | 5:06 AM

During his visit to Scranton last week, President Joe Biden touted parts of his climate agenda that could benefit the state.

But it’s not yet clear how a new framework agreement for his Build Back Better plan will affect some of his priorities.

On Thursday, Biden announced an agreement on a $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill, which includes $555 billion for climate initiatives such as clean energy tax credits and weather resiliency projects. Details on specific programs were not available.

Biden has repeatedly connected climate change action with creating jobs–the kind he says can’t be exported to other countries. They involve putting people to work building new infrastructure, installing electric vehicle charging stations, and plugging abandoned gas wells.

“Coal built this town and this part of the country, but we’ve got to provide other avenues for people to make the same kind of living they used to be able to make,” Biden said.

In Scranton, he said his plan would give more than $7 billion to build out the national network of electric vehicle charging stations and $21 billion for environmental cleanup, to include abandoned oil and gas well-plugging.

Abandoned oil and gas wells leak methane, which contributes to global warming. Pennsylvania has an estimated 200,000 wells, according to the Department of Environmental Protection, but is only closing a few dozen each year, mainly because of a lack of funding.

Joe Minott, executive director of Clean Air Council, said he’s excited the federal government is trying to help states control methane emissions.

“We just hope that the way it’s implemented in Pennsylvania ensures that when the wells are plugged, they’re properly plugged, and that they no longer present a climate change threat,” Minott said.

Rob Altenburg, Senior Director for Energy and Climate at PennFuture, said it would take a millennium to plug all the abandoned wells in the state at the rate Pennsylvania is going.

“With significant funding, we can turn this from a 1,000-year project to an under-100-year project,” Altenburg said.

He added that an investment in well-plugging could help transition away from fossil fuels.

“You can take people that are already trained in the oil and gas industry…and really put them directly to work at mitigating the environmental damage that industry has caused,” Altenburg said.

In a statement, American Petroleum Institute Pennsylvania said, “Our industry is taking action every day to address the permanent closure of natural gas and oil wells and the remediation of well sites in accordance with applicable federal and state laws.”

It said it supports measures that would help well-plugging efforts, but added “Natural gas and oil industry jobs are good-paying, family-sustaining jobs that cannot be replaced.”