State Street in Lancaster on August 4, 2022.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Pa. communities start to see impact of federal climate spending, as upcoming election casts doubt on programs’ futures
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Rachel McDevitt
Jeremy Long / WITF
State Street in Lancaster on August 4, 2022.
Pedestrian-friendly streets in Lancaster; reconnecting York to Codorus Creek; 500 new trees in Mechanicsburg. These are just a few of the projects funded by federal climate money helping transform Pennsylvania communities into safer and cleaner places.
As communities are finally receiving grants and starting work, the outcome of the upcoming election could determine whether remaining money from the laws will be awarded to address climate change.
More than $5.6 billion has been awarded to hundreds of projects across the state, according to tracking done by the data analytics firm Atlas Public Policy. It comes from 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, made a historic $1.2 trillion investment that allows for reducing planet-warming emissions and adapting to climate change in the infrastructure and transportation sectors.
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The Inflation Reduction Act – which passed without a single Republican vote – included more than $375 billion in direct spending and tax credits to address climate change. Some estimates show the total price tag could rise to $1 trillion over 10 years.
The tax credits for companies and individuals will likely have a larger impact than direct spending, said Atlas Public Policy analyst Tom Taylor, but they are harder to track.
The IRS released data showing 158,550 Pennsylvanians filed a tax return for 2023 that claimed a credit for clean energy or efficiency upgrades. The credits amounted to more than $267 million; an average of $1,684 per person.
The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the country’s history. Tackling climate change was a big promise from President Joe Biden during his 2020 campaign.
Haze hangs over Harrisburg as smoke from Canadian wildfires filtered into Pennsylvania on June 8, 2023. The smoke degraded air quality across Pennsylvania and other states in the northeast. Climate change is increasing the likelihood of these events. (Jeremy Long – WITF News)
Conservative groups behind Project 2025 have called for the climate spending law to be repealed. The document is a proposed transition plan for an incoming Republican presidential administration written by close allies of former President Donald Trump. Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan while campaigning.
It’s unclear if there’s appetite among Republican lawmakers for a full repeal, Taylor said, but a possible second Trump Administration could change the conditions for funding to undermine climate goals.
Trump has called climate change a hoax.
Scientists say emissions need to be cut drastically and quickly to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
While U.S emissions declined slightly in 2023, data shows global emissions reached a new record, putting climate goals in danger.
The U.S. has produced the most greenhouse gas emissions of any country, historically. Pennsylvania, as a major fossil fuel producing state, has played a role.
Now grants meant to spur climate action are flowing into the state.
Some of the awards are massive. Nearly $2 billion has gone to establish two hydrogen hubs that Pennsylvania will share with neighboring states. Pennsylvania also got $396 million to reduce planet-warming emissions in the state’s industrial sector.
While some grants seem small in comparison, Taylor said they all add up to accomplish what he said good climate legislation should do.
“Which is reduce emissions, but also improve people’s lives and make communities healthier and safer and stronger,” Taylor said.
Here are a few of the ways climate money is making a difference in Central Pennsylvania.
Safe Streets and Roads for All
The City of Lancaster is getting $12.7 million to help implement its Vision Zero plan, which city transportation planner Emma Hamme said aims to eliminate serious injuries and deaths from traffic incidents.
“This is definitely giving us a head start and allowing us to make these improvements much more quickly than we would ever be able to otherwise,” she said.
Ian Sterling for WITF
Signs pointing to the Lancaster Station are seen in this photo taken Aug. 5, 2019.
Over the next five years, the money will fund planning and outreach efforts as well as projects for improving crosswalks and lighting and restoring some one-way streets to two-way traffic.
Multiple-lane one-way streets allow cars to speed up, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a crash.
“That’s not great because you have other people who are trying to move around the city on bikes or trying to cross the street,” Hamme said.
She said the city will also look into creating safe zones around schools and possible slow zones on residential streets, a process that could be led by the people who live there.
“Residential side streets typically aren’t going to draw that much in terms of resources,” Hamme said. “We tend to be more focused on some of the main streets. But this is a way for us to get into the neighborhoods.”
The grant was funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Hamme said the goal in Lancaster is to make the city a safer place to walk, bike, and drive.
“We’re giving people choices for how they can move around the city,” Hamme said.
Trees for All
Lancaster is also getting $1 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to support a tree-planting initiative it adopted in 2020.
The money will help the city plant 500 new trees, remove about 250 poor-condition trees, and try to restore another 250 existing trees through pruning, said Molly Deger, deputy director in the Department of Public Works. It will also fund outreach efforts.
The work will happen over the next three years.
Trees have a lot of benefits. They help improve air quality, absorb stormwater runoff, and can save people money on energy bills by providing shade and wind breaks. Studies have shown trees can even help improve people’s mental health.
But trees can be a headache if they fall onto property and cause damage or tear up sidewalks with their roots.
Deger said the grant will help the city prevent damage and ease the burden of tree maintenance on homeowners, who are responsible for trees adjacent to their property under Pennsylvania law.
“We want there to be more shade and more tree canopy around the city, in general,” Deger said. “But we can’t do that in a tunnel. We need to appreciate and understand and do that in a way that I think also increases the public perception of those trees.”
Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania
Mechanicsburg’s environmental programs coordinator Luke Arnold speaks about the borough’s climate action plan with attendees at an Earth Day celebration in the borough on April 20, 2024.
In Cumberland County, Mechanicsburg is getting $500,000 to help with the borough’s goal to plant 500 trees by its bicentennial anniversary in 2028.
Environmental programs coordinator Luke Arnold said the grant will allow the borough to surpass that goal.
“It allows us to plant trees not only in the borough or public right-of-way spaces like parks or tree lawns, but also in private front and backyards,” he said.
Part of the grant will be used to give tree-tender training to people who want a tree for their yard, so they are equipped to keep the tree healthy long into the future.
Arnold said the grant is also helping create a tree inventory. The borough plans to put data on its trees into a program called i-Tree that will calculate the environmental and economic benefits of each tree, using factors such as gallons of stormwater captured and amount of carbon absorbed.
Efforts in both Lancaster and Mechanicsburg will be focused on disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Codorus Greenway
Codorus Creek has been cut off from the City of York by steep embankments and chain-link fences for generations.
“Literally, over a century now, the community has talked about making it sort of the centerpiece of our downtown and our neighborhoods,” said Silas Chamberlin, chief strategy officer at the York County Economic Alliance
Chamberlin said they can finally reconnect people to the waterway with the help of a $15 million infrastructure grant. That’s matching $15 million in state funds.
The money is going to the first phase of construction on the Codorus Greenway, a system of trails and parks along the creek that will connect neighborhoods and give people more options for walking and biking. The first phase will cover about half of the entire proposed greenway, from Grantley Road to College Avenue.
About a third of households around the project don’t own a car, Chamberlin said. The greenway will help connect people to transit, jobs, and schools.
A rendering of a portion of the Codorus Greenway.
“It would almost be like this backbone of transportation for city residents and visitors, but it would also, more importantly in some ways, create a way to deal with the water quality issues that we have,” Chamberlin said.
The plan includes planted buffers along the banks to absorb floodwaters and prevent runoff downstream to the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.
When the entire project is complete, Chamberlin said the buffers alone will address 16% of York County’s overall sediment reduction goals for the Chesapeake Bay.
The creek as it flows through York is controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers, which built a dam and levee system for the waterway in the 1940s. Chamberlin said that adds a layer of complexity as they work to transform the creek.
He said they are hoping to start construction in late 2025 and finish the first phase by early 2027.
Chamberlin said the project will show how federal spending translates to community improvements.
“You talk about these really big numbers and these really aspirational goals on a federal level, how does that actually trickle down to projects in the community? And this is one where it seems to have worked out really well for York,” Chamberlin said.
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