COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, March 4, 2024 11:13 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA
Good morning, everybody. Today is Monday, March 4, 2024. The Committee on Legislative Oversight is ready to begin our hearing. Before we start, I just want to say thank you to all the people who are here today to watch the government in action. As we are excited to have this conversation, special shout-out to the Vice-Chair Councilmember Landau. This is her first Committee hearing, so I'm going to leave for a little bit and let her Chair at some point so she can show Philadelphia how lucky we are to have her. With that being stated, I now note that the hour has come. Mr. Maynard, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. A quorum of the Committee is now present. This hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Legislative Oversight on Resolution No. 240069. Mr. Maynard, will you please read the title of the hearing resolution to be heard today.
Hearing Resolution 240069, authorizing the Committee on Legislative Oversight to hold hearings to investigate the City's progress on its carbon neutrality goals to meaningfully participate in the planet-wide effort to mitigate the effects of global warming.
Thank you, Mr. Maynard. Let's jump right into it unless any members of the Committee have any remarks? (No response.)
All right. Mr. Maynard, will you please call the first panel to testify this morning.
Of course. The first panel is Liz Lankenau and Emily Schapira, but we're going to have Ms. Lankenau joined by Nidhi Krishen and Dom McGraw first. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good morning. Thank you for being here today. Please state your name for the record and you may begin your testimony.
My name is Elizabeth Lankenau. So good morning, Chairperson Thomas and members of the Committee on Legislative Oversight. My name is Elizabeth Lankenau and I am the Interim Director of the Office of Sustainability. I'm here today to testify regarding Resolution 2 240069, to investigate the City's progress on its carbon neutrality goals. The Office of Sustainability was created in 2008 to promote policies and programs to meet the City's sustainability goals. To this end, our office works with partners throughout the City to improve the quality of life for all Philadelphians through advancing environmental justice, reducing carbon emissions and preparing for a hotter, wetter future. While our office is immersed in this mission, we realize that for most people goals like carbon neutrality can feel far off and unrelatable. However, we also know that the impacts of decades of global inaction are already widely felt, with vulnerable populations and people of color being affected most. Just ask the Philadelphia communities located in heat islands during ever-more common heatwaves, the property owners and renters experiencing flooding and water damage, the kids suffering from asthma because of poor air quality and the households across the City that struggle to pay their energy bills. In this testimony, we will talk about the nuts and bolts of emissions reductions because it is our responsibility to advance these technical goals. However, curbing the human impacts of climate change and building resilience to the changes already happening are always at the heart of our work. It is also important to recognize that reaching carbon neutrality will be a truly collective effort. I am one person testifying on behalf of the Administration. We as an office are one actor within the City department network, and this network exists within an ecosystem of public and private organizations. In preparing for this hearing, we reached out to many of our fellow departments to incorporate their important work. We all have a role to play to mitigate this planet-wide crisis. But at our core, we are here to serve and protect the people of Philadelphia, particularly those affected most by past harmful policies and practices. And in serving residents, we must meaningfully include them in building a lower carbon world that drives shared prosperity. When speaking about carbon neutrality, it's important to distinguish between the actions that the municipality can take to reduce emissions from its operations and the bigger challenge of reducing emissions across the City. Speaking first to municipal emissions reductions, the City is leading by example to reach carbon neutrality through improved energy management, energy efficiencies and using more renewable energy. This work is executed across the General Fund which produces 46 percent of municipal emissions, the Water Fund which produces 38 percent, and the Aviation Fund which produces 15 percent. 16 Through actions outlined in the Municipal Energy Master Plan, the City has cut municipal emissions in the General Fund's built environment by 44 percent since 2016, well ahead of schedule to meet the 2030 goal of a 50 percent reduction. This saves about $2 million a year through advanced energy procurement and management. One of the many partnerships with the Philadelphia Energy Authority was to develop a 70 mega watts solar facility, which now provides approximately 7 percent of the City's electricity 8 from municipal buildings. 9 The in-progress upgrade of 10 all City streetlights to LEDs, the 11 Philly Streetlight Improvement 12 Project, which will reduce 13 municipal energy by 10 percent 14 saving $5 million to $8 million a 15 year while improving public safety. 16 The City's new Guaranteed Energy 17 Savings Act project will finance 18 major upgrades for City offices, 19 health centers and homeless 20 services buildings through energy 21 savings.
And integrating the 22 School District into the City's 23 energy management portfolio will 24 save millions on energy costs while 25 creating a healthier environment for students. One-third of the General Fund's emissions come from municipal fleet. We will continue to support the fleet electrification through strategic deployment of additional EV charging infrastructure for its necessary expansion. In addition to this work contributing to carbon pollution reduction, the transition will yield cost-savings and support local job creation. The Philadelphia Water Department's Energy Management and Resource Recovery Program addresses the 38 percent of municipal emissions generated through PWD's operations. The team is advancing efforts for carbon neutrality at facilities which are large energy users through projects to generate energy and offset the reliance on natural gas and electricity such of the use of biogas and solar energy. The Department of Aviation has a robust sustainability program to address its percent of 4 municipal emissions. It has 5 conducted energy audits, annual 6 greenhouse gas inventories and 7 achieved airport carbon 8 accreditation. Through projects 9 like LEED certification and the 10 electrification of diesel groun 11 support equipment, it is 12 proactively addressing its 13 footprint. 14 Efforts to reduce jet fuel 15 idling has prevented emissions 16 equivalent to 1617 tons of nitrous oxides and 68 tons of particulate matter improving air quality. Plans include geothermal and solar energy production projects and a zero-emission strategy for shuttle buses. While it is extremely important for the municipality to do its part, we are one entity among many who must act for the City to reach carbon neutrality. To put this into context, emissions generated by the municipality are only about 2 percent of the total generated city-wide. Over the past two Administrations, Philadelphia has made progress toward reducing emissions and has consistently met global standards, being recognized as a Climate Disclosure Project A-list city for bold climate action. In 2021, our office conducted a city-wide greenhouse gas inventory that found that emissions have dropped by 18 percent between 2006 and 2019, with 19 a large portion of reductions 20 coming from a cleaner energy grid. Achieving carbon neutrality will require an immense city-wide effort to address the 70 percent of city- wide emissions generated by buildings and industry, the percent generated by transportation and the percent generated by waste and wastewater. In 2012, the City took the first step in addressing emissions from large buildings city-wide through the Building Energy Benchmarking Policy, which requires large building owners to report on their energy use. Then in 2019, the City adopted the Building Energy Performance Policy, further requiring large buildings to perform tune-ups to improve energy efficiency. Further development of policies to directly address emissions from buildings could build upon these actions and accelerate reductions. Expanding building energy policies to address buildings of all sizes is an important part of the equation, as most of our residents live in small older houses that need updates to both reduce energy use and reduce high energy costs. Through our Energy Poverty Alleviation Strategy, we strive to address residents' high energy burden while reducing residential emissions, building resilience and improving housing quality insecurity. This work will focus on underresourced and overburdened communities and incorporate green workforce development to prioritize an equitable and just clean energy transition.
To address the percent 16 of city-wide emissions generated by 17 transportation efforts -- generated 18 by transportation, efforts by 19 partners at SEPTA and the Office of 20 Transportation, Infrastructure & 21 Sustainability are working to 22 increase the accessibility of 23 public transportation, increase 24 biking and scale adoption of EVs, 25 improving low- and no-emission alternative transportation modes and enabling the transition to electric automobility are important parts of the strategy. Every Philadelphian who takes the bus in lieu of a personal vehicle cuts their emissions by 38 percent while people who walk or bike completely eliminate their emissions. OTIS while working with its partners has an extensive portfolio to make buses faster and more reliable, enable kids to walk to school safely and make riding a bike a safe and inclusive option. There are many reasons why people need to drive, and we should support the electrification of those trips. To this end, OTIS is working to increase the provision and equitable distribution of EV chargers. To address the 4 percent of emissions generated by waste and wastewater, the departments across the City are implementing solutions related to recycling, organic waste, tree cover, urban agriculture and green stormwater management. Weekly collections of recycling by the Sanitation Division helps residents accessibly reduce their carbon footprints while reducing raw materials and waste going into landfills and waste-to-energy facilities. 5 million annually. Future efforts will encourage all Philadelphians to reduce consumption, repair and reuse items and recycle acceptable waste. The Department of Parks and Recreation achieves carbon reductions through several of its units, including Farm Philly, Natural Lands and Urban Forestry, Tree Philly, Park Stewardship and its Sustainability division. These programs divert food waste from landfills, sequester carbon through urban gardens and tree planning and conservation, mitigate flooding and reduce sediment pollution, promote native species and turn dead and falling trees into lumber. The Philadelphia Water Department is implementing the 25-year Green City, Clean Waters program to reduce the volume of stormwater entering combined sewers through green stormwater infrastructure and traditional infrastructure improvements. The environmental benefits of GSI include improving air quality and reducing emissions, reducing urban heat island effect, saving energy and supporting wildlife, all of which help to increase resilience to a changing climate. Another extremely important lever contributing to carbon neutrality is the carbon intensity of our energy sources. There are a multitude of factors that affect our energy mix in Philadelphia. Among them, federal and state policies, energy markets and infrastructure requirements. While our testimony will be too brief to cover this, we will highlight a high-impact project under development that exemplifies energy innovation in the region, the Hydrogen Hub. As a lead partner in the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub, the City of Philadelphia is at the forefront of an initiative to reduce carbon, methane and other emissions through the production of low or no carbon hydrogen, both through municipal and city-wide projects. As the Hub becomes more established, opportunities to explore the use of hydrogen for heavy vehicles and industrial needs will be explored. Initiatives like the Hub will allow the City to progressively make energy a bigger portion of its energy supply. While carbon neutrality is extremely important, pursuing this goal justly, equitable and in ways that are relevant to our residents is essential. In 2022, the City also took an important step in furthering just and equitable climate action through the creation of our Office of Environmental Justice team.
Their work centers communities disproportionately burdened with negative environmental impacts in all actions to reduce emissions and build climate resilience, establishing racial equity as a core value in our climate work. Grant-making through the Community Resilience and Environmental Justice Fund, the work of the resident-led Philadelphia Environmental Justice Advisory Commission and developing mapping tools to understand the cumulative impacts of environmental injustices will guide decision- making and policy. Finally, it is important to note that while this testimony focuses on carbon neutrality, the impacts of climate change are already being felt. And our work in heat and flood-prone communities shows that we need to focus on climate resilience simultaneously. In 2019, the City appointed its first Chief Resilience Officer to guide coordinated adaptation efforts. Planning efforts through the Flood Risk Management Task Force break down departmental silos to grow city-wide flood resiliency, while place-based initiatives in overburdened, flood-prone communities like Eastwick convene governmental stakeholders while routing resources, support and decision-making power to the community. The City is also taking steps to develop an equitable, community-driven resilience plan greatly expanding the scope of the 2015 Growing Stronger Plan. Through the testimony provided today, it should be clear how the Office of Sustainability has approached this important work and how we work with other departments to advance carbon neutrality by 2050, if not sooner. More can and must be done and we're seeking every opportunity through Inflation Reduction Act funding, philanthropic support and intentional collaborations to act swiftly. As this work develops, we will continue to look to all of you to understand that hard conversations, difficult decisions and impactful trade-offs are part of this work. While the work ahead will require enormous effort, we are confident in the leadership of this City and applaud Mayor Parker's long-term vision to meet the City's goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. By working together, we will make Philadelphia the cleanest, greenest and most prosperous big city in America. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. With me I have Dominic McGraw, Deputy Director of Energy Services and Operations and Nidhi Krishen, Deputy Director of Climate Solutions to assist me in answering any questions. And I will be happy to assist in directing you to the appropriate department representatives that have contributed to our testimony today. Thank you.
Thank you for your testimony. Very much appreciated. Mr. Clerk, do you want to call the next person on this panel to testify? And then we'll open it up for questions from members of the Committee.
In order to manage mics and seats, why don't we run questions for this group first. It might make this things a little easier logistically.
Okay. So, Emily, nobody else would like to offer any testimony before or -- well, okay, never mind. Let's start with questions with this group, and then we'll move to Emily. It was written a little different. Emily was on this panel. Members of the Committee, any questions to get it started?
Thank you for your testimony. I was just noting to one of our leaders in our office that as you noted in your testimony, carbon neutrality often times can go to the wayside compared to all the issues that happen in the City, so thanks for bringing this to our attention as much as possible. But one of the things that I wanted to say is that I couldn't help but see in your testimony that you noted that you're only one person, a part of one Administration and it's going to take a number of people to really make this possible. I just want to know what does it look like for you to have more people involved in this, right, because clearly, you know, I guess since legislation came about, maybe I would have never interacted with your office for whatever reason. So how is your office working to interact with the general public on an ongoing basis by going out to neighborhoods, going into these Districts because to really talk about carbon neutrality and make it a huge awareness thing for the City.
Sure. So I would say first with our new Environmental Justice Team and the Advisory Commission that we work with, that is one level I think that we're going to pull to be increasingly in the community, both as staffers and through the Commission. We will be working on -- we're finishing up an energy, poverty alleviation strategy -- and Nidhi can talk about that more -- and some of the planning work that has gone into that, but figuring out sort of the next steps to be more present in the community to really work on what needs to be done to alleviate the cost of paying your energy bills. So those are just a couple ways. We will also be -- this is resilience, not mitigation but are looking into various funding sources to do an updated resilience plan from our 2015 Growing Stronger. Growing Stronger was not really focused on municipal actions. And the resilience plan that we're going to do next is going to be a (inaudible) in the community, heavy intense planning process. And through that even though it's a resilience plan, we are going to be developing mitigation questions and approaches to be able to speak to the community. So while we're out there and minimize I think a lot of the analysis, paralysis and overplanning because there's so many plans that happen in communities, how we can answer a lot of questions while we're out there. So does that answer your question?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I just offer -- because a lot of the work does involve community resilience. For example, recycling didn't become popular overnight. There was a lot of advertisement to the point we're recycling as something that we do. This is going to be the same thing when it comes to carbon neutrality, right. It's going to have to be a level of advertisement to help us get to that point we're at. I'm just looking to see what advertisement are we doing around this issue.
I think this will get to Mayor Parker's see, touch, feel. And one of the things we're working on right now is a bit of community strategy so that we're not stuck in our lingo. Every department has their lingo and how do we really make sustainability, mitigation, resilience. People feel it. They might just not really know how they feel it, so how do we democratize the work that we do.
A couple of questions: So part of the goal of the conversation here today is to see what the likelihood is that we can actually achieve carbon neutrality before 2050. I think based on the testimony that we heard as well as the facts and data that came with it, it seems like we're on a good trajectory. But talk to me about what it would take to move that up or 4 10 years. Let's say if we were 5 trying to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.
Yeah. I mean, I think we're in an unprecedented time, first of all, with the Inflation Reduction Act to go after more dollars to do more work. So it's not necessarily a burden for City government as it's us going after the dollars. Buildings take up -- they're the largest part of the emissions equation. And so, focusing on buildings, both large buildings and small buildings. So the energy, poverty, alleviation strategy will get to some of that regardless of what kind of energy is powering buildings. One of the things that we really want to see happen is that people are enrolled in the affordability programs. And so, they're weatherizing their properties which of course reduces the amount of energy used, whether that's gas or in the future electric or whatever that mix looks like. So I think right now it's a little hard to say how we get to 2040, but there are certainly levers and actions we can pull to make that to expedite.
Well, that's going to be the theme for today's hearing. So as other folks come to testify, we want to consistently ask folks' opinion as it relates to expediting the process. Last question for me for this particular panel, and then I'll open it up to other members of the Committee, what policy or practice has another city taken that we haven't necessarily adopted in Philadelphia that you feel like we should look at and possibly adopt to try to again expedite where we want to go as it relates to carbon neutrality?
Sure. I would say Boston. I think one of my first meetings when I came in as interim we met with Boston and they do have what's called a building performance policy standard. There is money out there, federal dollars to explore that. So that's something that is on our --
And so, it will be taking the work we're already doing with our benchmarking program, our performance policy and it's like taking it up a notch to really look at how buildings can perform even better through basic tune-ups. So other cities have done it. I believe New York has done it. I think Nidhi can speak to this more than I could. But that is again if we're looking at buildings being the biggest emissions problem, we would focus on buildings for sure.
In your testimony you talked a little bit about e-chargers and making sure that they're being distributed in an equitable way. Give us a little more detail. Where are we as it relates to e-chargers? How responsible have we been as it relates to the distribution of those chargers and what is our plan as it relates to the future and how we see this as an infrastructure issue. Is it included in our capital budget? Are we going to rely on the private sector? Give me a little information on that.
Sure. I would say EVs, it's a mix. For the municipal side of things, I'll ask Dom McGraw to talk a bit more about our policy and how we've been doing this for the municipality and all of our departments. And then if you want further information, I can ask Chris Puchalsky from our office of Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability to weigh in a little bit more. So with that, would you like to contribute? MR. McGRAW: So I think when we talk about charging infrastructure, there's City-owned assets and that charges City fleet vehicles. However, when we are talking about public charging, that is not something that the Administration oversees. So I think typically we're looking for industry to come in and fill that void. That's why we're seeing different chargers at different retail stops and things like that.
I think the concern is if we -- I'm sorry. For the record, I want to acknowledge that Councilmember Young has joined us as well as Councilmember Lozada. I think the concern is that if we allow the private sector to, I don't want to say completely, but to take the lead as it relates to planning around e-chargers, we can look up and be in a position where a lot of poor communities and communities of color are again left out as it relates to another issue. So help us understand how do we assure as we're making this transition, which we are all excited about and we want to advocate for, how do we assure that communities of color and poor communities are not left out? If I'm in the private sector, what are we doing to incentivize this type of access? I just don't see how this is equitable, if that makes sense. And I'm not saying you're not doing it. I'm saying for me based on what I'm hearing I'm not quite sure that my question is being answered. MR. McGRAW: Sure. And Chris Puchalsky here from Transportation can speak to that. I think what I meant to say was what our office oversees is the distribution of fleet vehicle charging and then the policies that exist around that. So we work heavily with the Department of Fleet Services and how we can put charging infrastructure around so our City fleet can use it. But Office of Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability oversees the policy.
Good morning, Councilmember. Chris Puchalsky, OTIS. I think you raise a really great point, that the private sector while we are seeing more and more charge points being installed left to its own devices may not, likely will not end up with an equitable solution just like we see so many areas of our society. I think there's a few pieces we're trying to put together. One is looking at the zoning code to see how we can improve that to ensure that more charging is installed with new development. Something we did last year was apply for a federal grant to install charging around rec centers. We did not win that federal grant, but we're trying to learn from what the federal government did want to fund so we could readjust our strategy next time. We're looking at several of the other federal grants either through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the Inflation Reduction Act. Three of the programs are NEVI, the National Electrical Vehicle Infrastructure program; CPRG, the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant; and CFI, who I can't remember the name of that one right now. But there's a bunch of different grant opportunities that we can look to jumpstart it. I think the other thing is looking at what are the incentives and where does the private sector want to go and how can we put our thumb on the scale, so to speak. I think we're still learning that and it's probably too soon to talk about the budget ask and the capital operating budget, but it's something that we're looking at developing a plan. We're hoping in the next few months to put out the starting strategy around the electric vehicle charging.
Chris, you've been testifying in hearings with me too much so you already knew where I was about to go. I would love to, and I just want to put this on the record and then I'll recognize other members who may have questions. I would love to see a proactive plan that allows the City to partner with other departments that already exist such as Parks & Rec like you said or the libraries to be able -- imagine someone being able to charge their car at the library, go in and be able to get some work done and read some books and then be able to come back and, you know. And because our libraries are dispersed in a way that's equitable as well as our rec centers, there is a path to being able to address that issue. So thank you, Chris. I appreciate your testimony. Chair recognizes Vice-Chair Landau and then Councilmember Young.
Thanks. Thank you so much for all your testimony. I have a couple of questions that include I am still forever struck by that 70 percent that our emissions are coming from buildings throughout the City and really also am very interested in anything else we can do to help us speed up the repairs that we need to make, any of the energy efficiencies in these buildings. Whether it's Boston, New York, whatever information you can give to us that would help us help you and help all of us, we really would like that information. I'm excited at this time of home repairs coming and Basic System Repairs that we can start holistically looking at our buildings, but lower income people need help. Our big building people need to focus on all of us because it's got to be a part of their kind of social impact of having their industry or their building here in the City of Philadelphia. Give back to us. Help us breathe better. Help us all thrive -- sorry to use your term -- in the City, but I think that is really important that they have that social compact with us. So whatever you can give us on that. I have more questions about recycling, finding out recently that only percent of 4 Philadelphians recycle; is that 5 about right? That's what I've 6 heard. 7
Yeah. For 8 that, I would direct that one to 9 Kyle Lewis in our Sanitation 10 Department on details about our 11 recycling, but yeah. 12
It 13 sounds like I got a number that was extremely low. I don't like that. So what can we do, and maybe you're not the answer to this, but to better promote recycling to folks, including businesses and commercial activity as well, not everybody's recycling when they should? Even when we do separate out our recycling, I want to know how we can better handle our plastics. And I know our food system waste can be used in positive ways as well. And so, when can we start composting and using all that waste in a way that generates us and helps us?
Sure. So for the recycling question, I'd like to call up Kyle Lewis. For the composting, Erica Smith Fichman from Parks & Rec with the organics program that they're working on with Bennett Composting and if they need to defer to others in their department, I will ask them to do so.
And also while we're at it, can I also throw in I'm very interested in what we're doing with the streets to make them more bike- and pedestrian-friendly.
Good morning. I am Kyle Lewis, Recycling Program Director with the Sanitation Department. So I want to address the percent first. It doesn't 4 necessarily mean that 13 percent of 5 the people are recycling. It means 6 that 13 percent of the waste that 7 we are collecting is being diverted 8 by recycling, diverted to 9 recycling. 10 We also have a number of 11 other -- and that is a statistic 12 for our curbside collections. We 13 also recycle through our sanitation convenience centers. We recycle metals. We recycle fluorescent light bulbs. We recycle yard waste, white goods and batteries also at our sanitation convenience centers as well as we take tires for disposal. And so, that number of 13 percent is the curbside collections number. And I can get you if you'd like the broader number from the recycling of the materials at the sanitation convenience centers. And then there were other questions, but I can't say that I have them in --
So thank you for that. That's great. Can we do better with plastics and then also food waste and composting at some point?
So we can certainly do better with plastics. Currently in the City of Philadelphia we recycle plastics Nos. 1, 2 and 5. So what we tell our public is that we recycle 215s in the 215, right. So it's an easy way for them to get to know what they can recycle. Because the truth of the matter is that the plastic industry is playing a little bit of a trick in that all of the plastics with that recycling symbol Mobius, those chasing arrows in a triangle, all of those plastics are not really recyclable. There's not a market for all of those plastics. And so, we try to be very specific with our public as to what materials are accepted, recyclable because the truth of the matter is that in order for it to be environmentally viable, it needs to be clean recycling. And so, we at my office in Sanitation have been constantly and constantly doing a large push in order to let people know what's recyclable, what's not recyclable, acceptable, you know. I had somebody -- I was actually at a party this weekend and she said, oh, just put it in the recycling bin. And I was like uh, and we haven't had the what-is-my-job conversation, right. But I ended up kind of explaining to the party why this plastic is recyclable and this one isn't. And so, it is messaging that is something that we are consistently getting out to our public. And we ask if any City Councilpeople, if you are having events, if you are having staff meetings, that we be able to come in and teach that because we find that talking with people about recycling in a more intimate setting is really what changes their behavior.
And I suppose the larger question also is can we -- I want to handle plastics in the best possible way we can here in Philadelphia as well. I know we now know what's recyclable, but we want to also make sure that we're recycling in the healthiest way possible here in Philadelphia.
Right. In terms of the recycling, we don't use a chemical recycling process. We sort bale. It is a contracted company that we work with. Our current contract is with Waste Management and it's right on Bleigh Avenue in Philadelphia. So that material is sorted out, baled and then sold to the markets. We're not stockpile -- there's no stockpiling of materials. It's really being sold, you know, your phone cases is likely made out of recycled plastics as well as other items that we use every day. And so, I want to make sure that I'm answering your question. But honestly, I'm not clear on what you mean by how can we better handle plastics.
Someone is taking the plastics and putting it into a different form to create new plastics, so it's harming someone somewhere, right. The processing plant is not the safest place in the world, so that's what I was looking into. But we can also talk more offline about that as well.
In terms of food waste, we at Sanitation have been working with the Water Department in order to work on an anaerobic digestion process of taking the food waste that is source separated organics, turning them into a slurry, and then that would go into the Water Department digesters to really enrich the pellets that they are already making. And so, we have been investigating that. It is an ongoing process. There's been a benchtop study with Temple University for that process and that was successful, but the Water Department has to make sure that the process will not foul up their digesters because that's not something that we can afford to happen. The waste that comes out of the City of Philadelphia has to be processed and kind of going into the system and gets out of the system within a certain timely fashion. And so, that's what we in Sanitation are doing. And I know Parks & Rec has a community compost network as well as looking into expand composting within Parks & Recreation centers.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few questions actually along the lines of things that's been testified today. Has the City -- there was an article that came out a couple of months ago about L&I and the fact that there isn't enough chargers for the electric vehicles, right. So has the City done any type of study to determine what its own needs are for electric charging vehicles and is that somewhere published that we as Councilmembers can take a look at?
Sure. I'm going to defer this to Dom. MR. McGRAW: Sure. Yes. So we are actively working with departments to assess their need. We know what a vehicle conversion strategy would look like as far as -- and that's highlighted in our Municipal Clean Fleet Plan, so looking at how we can transition our light-, medium-duty fleet to electric. On the heavier side, the technology isn't quite there for our needs. So now as we're transitioning and electrifying our fleet and moving that forward, the need for infrastructure is growing. And so, we have been assessing sites to find out where the best is for our operating departments. Some of our operating departments lease garage space. Some are on municipal assets. So while we're working on building out that infrastructure, we have like a charging contract to use with EVgo currently. And so, they're providing supplementary support while we build out our charging infrastructure. I will say we have solidified a charging infrastructure vendor to collect all the equipment and now we're going to be installing it. So that's going to ramp up significantly, but that's kind of where we're at. We currently have 54 sites across City assets and that provides 100 ports. We have 250 vehicles, so we should be able to be charging in a regular capacity with that. However, different departments have different needs and where this infrastructure is located is something that we're working on. So we're developing -- to answer your question, we're developing a full plan. I can absolutely share that with you when that's completed. We're regularly working with departments now to meet their needs.
Thank you. Along those lines just for future reference, I know that there is a proposed police station in my District. And I can tell you that the residents would much more like electric charging stations than the traditional fueling stations there, so that could be a potential site to add more electric charging infrastructure there. Second question I have, what are some efforts or what are your efforts to reduce our carbon footprint I guess regionally, right? How have you been working with some of our other municipalities in the region to address this issue, because Philadelphia can't just address it alone? Whatever our efforts are, it doesn't do anything if our partners regionally aren't collectively working to that goal as well.
Sure. I would say the first step has been very recent with the Inflation Reduction Act. There is a pot of funding, formula funding right now for the Climate Pollution Reduction Act, the Delaware Valley Regional Commission. I was leading the planning effort for the Pennsylvania municipalities and its jurisdiction, so Chester, Bucks Mont Co., us, Delaware County. From there the formula funding is a guaranteed $1 million that is used to develop the plan. Hot on the heels of that within a month we had to be assembling a list of implementation projects. So that too is a collaborative effort with Delaware Valley Planning and other municipalities because their needs and their readiness is very different than our needs and our readiness. So the plan was just submitted. I think the email came in today and the projects have been identified and they relate to things, reducing building emissions, act of transportation. There's I think seven to nine different areas of focus in that that really will help address reducing the carbon footprint not just in Philadelphia but for others since we know this does not respect geographical boundaries. Nidhi, is there anything else you would like to add to that?
The Philadelphia Energy is leading an application for implementation dollars for the CPRG coordinating all our projects. I'm sure I'll let them speak more about that, but thank you.
Thank you. And one more question. This is just on the recycling. Is there any literature that we can give out to our constituents on how to recycle because I've been only in office in for two months now, but this is some things that I want to give out to our constituents on the need and the understanding on the knowledge and education of how to recycle properly?
Absolutely. And thank you for that willingness to do that. We will deliver to all of City Council information about recycling so that you can have it for your constituents. You'll have that within the week.
And our website is very robust in terms of recycling information as well.
Just a follow-up to recycling. As we as a city looked at becoming cleaner and green, have we thought of the possibilities of partnering with the private recycling organizations or companies in different companies in different districts? Like in a district like mine I can think of four. Have we thought of partnering with them to help receive some of those appropriate and maybe nontraditional items that would show up in recycle centers to help us respond to the need and eliminate those items from ending up on our sidewalks as they often do, because people are not educated on where do I take it, what is appropriate and what is not?
So we partnered with many organizations and we're happy to continue to do that. We have a recycling donation resource finder that's online. If I'm being honest, it needs to be updated and we have plans to update that. And you can go to that recycling and resource finder and basically type in any type of material that you have and it will tell you where to recycle, and we partner with all of those organizations that are currently on the finder and we will update and grow the finder and partner with more organizations. And so, if you have those organizations in your community, please send them our way and we will make sure that they get onto the finder. One of the key items that we collect at our sanitation convenience centers are electronics. And so, we do collect electronics at our sanitation convenience centers as well, and we partner with community organizations throughout the year and do presentations in church basements, at community organizations. And again, we're happy to do that. Any information -- any invitation that we receive we're happy to say yes because we want people to get information about recycling. And again, when we go to organizations, one thing we do is just play a recycle sort game with everybody, right. We do that from kids to full-grown elderly adults, because many of us have been recycling for many years, but we're not doing it right and it's critical that we do it right. And so, any of those organizations that you have in mind, please send them our way because we will be happy to go to any meetings. I don't care if it's a meeting of 5 people or a meeting of 500 people. We're happy to be there and show people how to recycle and encourage them to recycle because it ultimately affects us all.
So this is what I want to say and I think it's really important. We have in different districts various events and programs. A lot of events and programs are tailored to certain issues and concerns. So it really sometimes if we have the ability to fit you in or fit someone like yourself in, that's fine. But it's not always our focus, right. I think your office would benefit from organizing your own events, your own programs and then just inviting District Councilmembers as well as At-large members and need be to come to the event and help promote the event and so forth. But you all have to begin to do the leg work to make awareness about this because you are the experts, you're the leaders in this, and I think it's really important that you -- like this office becomes a team player in organizing its events rather than waiting for us to organize them. Because one of the things I'm thinking about is there are children out there. There should be presentations in schools where you're talking about the importance of recycling. There are senior citizens that are in need of understanding why recycling is more important than maybe some archaic ways that they might have been doing things. Whatever that may be, I just think it's important that you all have to do the promotions and awareness of your office a lot better and find yourselves more connected into the neighborhoods.
Well, I certainly appreciate that, the thought that we need to do a better job so we will certainly look at that. We do a lot of community meetings through our Block Captain Network because they are a part of Sanitation, so we will go out to Block Captain meetings and have conversations with them at Block Captain meetings as well. But we can certainly look at doing additional events throughout the community so we get the work out more.
As far as you mentioned the schools, we actually right now are just awarding our Green Schools program, our Green Schools program, our grants to schools whether it be parochial, private or public schools that encourage environmental sustainability. And so, we have projects proposed that are installing a water fountain that takes reusable bottles in the schools and then everybody gets a reusable bottle so that that cuts down on plastic waste. And we have projects proposed for vertical gardens and different things in order to beautify and promote environmental sustainability.
Yeah, I mean that's a great program. But that also rewards the schools and kids who are into that. We have kids that I see every day throw trash on the ground. We have kids every day that I see that are certainly not thinking about recycling when they're dumping things into trash cans and so forth. So I think it really does start early on. And I think it's like assembly programs finding ways to see how many schools can you get to every year annually because they grow into adults. And before 2050, they can be the champions for this particular cause because they understand the importance of it. So I think our focus on sustainability has to be about making more direct presentations and having a lot of banners or posters or something that young kids face about this. Because people my age and so forth, we're either going to do it or not. But our kids are our future and they actually can be the more brilliant ones to help us understand why this is important. All right. I'm done, Chairman. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Phillips. We appreciate it. And did you want to respond?
Not respond, but I realize we did not answer one of Councilmember Landau's questions.
Yes. So, Dom, would you like to -- MR. McGRAW: Yes. So it was around buildings. Oh, and then streets was another one so there are two unanswered questions. So for buildings, we are working with the Philadelphia Energy Authority regularly. We take advantage of the Pennsylvania Guaranteed Savings Act, which allows us to go in and do a deep energy retrofit in our facilities. We did it at the quadplex, so this building and the surrounding high-rises that the City owns. We did it at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And then we're now also doing, speaking of Streets, the Streetlighting project is all funded through this Act. It allows us to take out a special fiancing through bonds that allow us to -- the savings from the project pays the bond. So it allows us to go in and do these deep energy projects. So up next what we have going on, we have RFPs out right now for we're going to come back to these buildings because the last project that we did was in 2050. We're going to do another deep energy retrofit here in City Hall. One Parkway Building, Municipal Services Building and then the Center for Criminal Justice as well as multiple health services and homeless services facilities. So with that, we know we're going to see savings. It's going to pay for itself, but also it's going to give significant energy, energy reduction which will help towards our carbon neutrality goal from municipal assets. But it also increased health within the spaces. We're also working with the School District of Philadelphia. We're going to be taking on their energy procurement and then through that, doing a lot of -- and bill 2 analysis so the utility bill 3 analysis, and that will help us identify different energy conservation measures we can take on. The Energy Authority's already been working with them on the Pennsylvania Guaranteed Energy Savings Act and we've been doing multiple projects, and Emily can speak more to that. But really looking at how we can kind of go deeper and maybe we can kind of target some facilities because of some of the findings we will find through energy analysis there. And can you repeat your streets question?
Just wanted to know -- you might or might not be the right person to answer this, but what are we doing with our streets to make them more biker- and walker-friendly?
Thanks for the question, Councilmember. There's a whole slew of things we're doing, and I think they all fit under something we know from our Vision Zero program, is that slower is safer. When a pedestrian is hit at miles per hour, they 11 have a 90 percent chance of 12 surviving. When that same 13 pedestrian is hit at 45 miles per 14 hour, they have a 90 percent chance 15 of dying. So we have a whole set 16 of programs and policies in order 17 to encourage drivers to drive at a 18 safe speed. 19 The speed cameras on 20 Roosevelt Boulevard have been 21 tremendously successful, and we 22 worked with the Coalition to make 23 that permanent last year and to get 24 five new corridors plus five school 25 zones. We're trying to roll that out. We were just meeting with Councilmember Thomas' staff last week, and we appreciate the interest from his office and lots of other offices on safety, so increasing the automated enforcement, which is not only effective but doesn't lead to some of the escalations that we've seen with manual enforcement where it could end up poorly for either the driver or the law enforcement professional. We also have a whole bunch from various small programs, like the Speed Traffic Calming Request program which we recently worked with the Streets Department to reform that program to make it more user-friendly for residents to request speed cushions and other traffic calming interventions on the streets to neighborhood slow zones where we actually work with an entire neighborhood to do traffic calming all at once. We sit down at a workshop. We give them the monopoly money and the cost of different speed cushions, bump-outs, et cetera. And they have them plan out how their own neighborhood is going to be safer. And then all the way from really large infrastructure grants, like last year we got a RAISE grant to do traffic calming at seven schools in North Philadelphia. So those are all the types of things that we are doing. We can probably spend the next hour talking about it and would love to whenever you're convenient.
And I'll just add additionally the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project --
The Philly Streetlight Improvement Project will also significantly increase visibility, so going towards our Vision Zero goals.
I did want to take an opportunity -- and thank you -- to address the Councilman's comments on the school assemblies. The Green Schools program is a threefold program. It is the grant program. It is the offer to the schools to come in and do assemblies and classroom visits with any of our staff, whether that be about recycling or whether that be about green jobs in general or jobs in sanitation. We have a lot of -- just to put it honestly, we have a lot of Black males who are in positions of authority in the Sanitation Department that I think is a good image for students to see. And so, we offer the schools the opportunity for any of our Sanitation staff to come in and have conversations via assembly or as I said classroom visits on any range of topics depending upon ages. The other component of the Green Schools program is that we offer the schools that we will come in and do a waste audit and show them how they can better manage their waste within the schools. And so, the Green Schools program is those three components. It's the grants, it's the assemblies and classroom visits and waste audits. We've also partnered with the School District, and it is certainly time to revisit and we can certainly be more proactive in kind of calling the schools and asking them as opposed to just sending them out an email, so I certainly agree with that. But we have partnered with the schools in that our posters -- we've edited our posters to put School District logos and identification on them and then they hang in the School District cafeterias. And so, I appreciate all of these suggestions that come out of these meetings because we certainly can't think of everything. And I appreciate your comments, and we will take them to heart and pursue them.
Thank you. I just want to say I appreciate you sharing that insight and the work that you're doing. Certainly continue it. And as you said, I think that being really proactive, having a calendar of events, aggressive about getting the relationships into the schools will make a world of a difference. For a program of that nature, it could make a huge impact on te lives of kids, especially if we not only enforce it through assembly but also reinforce it through teachers and so forth, have the School District reinforce it throughout their lessons and so forth as much as they can. So I think we just need to be a little bit more aggressive with it. So thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Phillips. Councilmember Young, did you have a comment?
The implementation of the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project, are they City workers that are actually changing out the lights or are they privately contracted? MR. McGRAW: No, it's contracted out with -- Ameresco is the company and then they have subs that work with them. So if it is an issue with an existing streetlight, it would go to the Streets Department. But as we're moving forward with this project and going neighborhood-by-neighborhood, they will be target for retrofit. Does that make sense?
Yeah. And was that RFP'd out? How was that company -- MR. McGRAW: Yes, it was a full RFP.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Lozada. Before Councilmember Lozada go, you spoke about the RAISE grant program. Please tell me that the majority of that money was spent on the percent of the roads that produced the majority of our car accidents in the City. Please tell me that's the focus of --
Yeah. So 6 none of that money has been spent 7 yet because they made the RAISE 8 announcement last year. It usually 9 takes over a year to get the grant 10 under contract and another two to 11 three years to move through the 12 design process until we get to construction.
Well, some of its -- yeah, the federal government doesn't always move as fast as we want, but I know they're trying. But, yes, we specifically selected those schools to try to target a lot of the High Energy Network. Not every mile is because kids walk a lot of different directions, but we targeted those schools because they were in neighborhoods that both have a lot of High Energy Network streets and they were low-income minority communities that were suffering disproportionately from traffic violence.
For those who are not aware, we've been down this road a lot of times in a lot of different hearings and one of the things that was most alarming during the pandemic was that not only did we see an increase in hit-and-runs but we didn't have the proper technology, and we recognize that a few roads were producing the majority of the accidents. So when I'm talking about the 12 percent, it's a number that we've reflected upon based on a number of different conversations and deep dives into this particular issue. So I'm very glad to hear that. A little disappointed in how long it's going to take, but very excited to hear that we still have that sharp focus as it relates to investing infrastructure dollars on the High Energy Network, those intersections, those streets, those areas that produce most of our car accidents.
Yes, sir. Every opportunity we get or every reconcern from a resident, that is the very first place we look to say whether that comes to the top of our list or falls down farther, is it on the High Energy Network.
This is the last question. Chair recognizes Councilmember Lozada.
Very quickly. I know out of my office we have prioritized recreation centers, schools and parks for calming measures and speed bumps, but we have a list of residents who have put in petitions to request speed bumps. Do we know what is it going to cost us to be able to install these speed cushions in the applications or in the requests that have already come in? Do we know how many that's been requested or are in the pipeline? How do we figure out, how do we prioritize them? When I talk to police, police say, well, we base them on accidents. And some of our intersections are difficult to understand the numbers that police are reporting based on what community residents are saying or just standing on that corner and seeing how traffic moves. So are we analyzing that? How do we do that if we're not? And what are the results of the reports that you guys are getting if you're actually doing it?
Yeah, that's a great question. So on the crash data, we know that every crash is reported. So sometimes when we're having a conversation and we say, hey, we don't see any crashes at this intersection, almost always the residents say, you don't know about the one that happened last week or the overturned car, and not every crash is reported. I don't have those numbers at my fingertips, but I can go back and work with the Streets Department to get you that list of what would it cost to identify everything that's currently on the list. We know this is an increasingly popular program where more and more residents are seeing that they can't walk to school -- they can't walk their kids to school safely, they can't go to the corner store to pick up a gallon of milk without fearing for their lives, so we know it's popular. But we can try to get that number and get back to you.
Okay. That would be awesome, yes. And as it relates to the lights that Councilmember Young mentioned, I know that in order for a bulb to be changed, there's a certain process. But if I understand correctly, the City is in the process of changing the actual unit, right, the streetlight. Do we know or how many have been changed up until now? What is left? How much is that going to cost us and how do you select which go first? MR. McGRAW: I'm going to pass it to Emily Schapira from the Philadelphia Energy Authority.
Instead of passing that question to Emily, why don't we move to the next panel which is Emily.
Thank you. Thank you very much. And that is a great segue. I did want to say that a lot of our work we do work with the Energy Authority very closely and we need them. So thank you.
Thank you to the panel. Thank you to the Admin team. We appreciate all you're doing and we look forward to having this conversation again some time soon. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the next panel. We're going to go with Emily and the Professor, right?
That's correct, Mr. Chair. Emily Schapira and Rob Kuper. Professor Kuper, would you come forward as well. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Emily, we'll start with you. Please state your name for the record and of course you may begin with your testimony. And I think Councilmember Lozada already has dibs on first question.
My name's Emily Schapira. I'm the President and CEO of the Philadelphia Energy Authority. Good afternoon now to Chair Thomas, members of the Committee. I think you all know, and I will summarize my testimony, you have it in writing, the Philadelphia Energy Authority is a municipal authority chartered by City Council and the Mayor in 2010. We report up to a Board that's appointed by the Mayor and Council. We're focused on building a robust and equitable clean energy economy here in Philly. We support and enable the City, the School District and the private sector, including in particular affordable housing to access, develop, procure, finance and implement energy projects that help drive to our carbon neutrality goals while at the same time addressing some of Philly's biggest challenges like poverty, education, public health, Vision Zero, public safety and much more. In 2016 in partnership with then City Council President Clarke, we launched the Philadelphia Energy Campaign, a $1 billion 10-year investment in energy efficiency and clean energy projects to create 10,000 jobs. We are well on our way to meeting these ambitious goals. We're about to formally announce our 2023 numbers, but I can preview you here that we've supported more than $900 million in projects just through seven years of the program and have created 7500 hundred jobs so far. We view our role as implementators so that's why a lot of the questions that you're asking about, energy projects to sustainability, are coming back my way. We follow the lead of our City's leadership and the Office of Sustainability when they set policy and priorities while we focus on the nitty-gritty needed to execute programs and projects. So we hold long-term contracts on behalf of the City, including for streetlighting, issue bonds, manage complex energy procurements on behalf of the City. We provide technical support to the School District. We run consumer- and business-focused programs that enable the marketplace to drive climate adaptation just like you were talking about with things like EVs or energy efficiency in buildings to Councilmember Landau's point. And then we also run workforce development programs that build onramps to employment in this industry, particularly for historically marginalized populations. We exist to help Philadelphia's climate efforts scale bigger, move faster and break down barriers to clean energy and its benefits. I want to give a few examples, and I will answer some questions as I do that. The first is the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project. Of course, that's in partnership with the Streets Department and the Office of Sustainability. Before we launched this project, Streets used their capital budget for many years to make lighting upgrades where they could afford to do it. They completed about 2200 lights a year. Using a comprehensive energy project strategy with PEA, we were able to issue the City's first sustainability bond, and we're spending about $92 million to replace and connect 130,000 streetlights with super energy efficient, dark sky-compliant, warm-colored LEDs and link all new and existing LEDs that the Streets Department had previously replaced to a lighting management system that provides dimming and brightening controls and realtime outage alerts. So we're eliminating sort of the need to go find fixtures that are out or file 16 through on 311 reports we'll know immediately. And also, in certain places where we're seeing high instances of vehicle and pedestrian crashes, we have a scheme in place that brightens those locations significantly so that the visibility is much better at night. We were able to include also a comprehensive, equity-driven lighting design process to allow for stakeholder engagement. And this project will touch every single neighborhood in the City over two years. So we'll complete all 130,000 fixtures in a 24-month construction cycle.
We're about six months into that -- almost six months into that at the moment. We're about percent of the way 13 through at the moment and we are 14 going to be speeding up shortly as 15 we're getting more of the fixtures completed and delivered. The project pays for itself over 10 years, provides local economic benefits and employment through auditing. We're doing local assembly. You may have seen the recent news article about the local assembly plant out in West Philly, and we're using Future Track to clear the trash and debris out of alleyways so that we can get in there to change the light fixture. The project was procured by PEA. So to Dom's answer, we used a Guaranteed Energy Savings Act procurement which allows us to procure a single energy services company. That company's called Amaresco. They bring in subcontractors per our requirements, so it's all the same sort of prevailing wage union labor that you would see on any other project. We just don't do separate four-part bidding. And for this project, we have 58 percent M/WBEs participating and 58 percent Local Business Enterprises as well. We also managed to create specific job training opportunities along the way. This project alone as Liz mentioned reduces the City's carbon footprint by about 10 percent. So that's a -- I see you're wanting to ask a question.
Okay. Good. So we also support the School District on their projects and that's something that was mentioned earlier as well. We generally provide technical assistance to the School District, so we've now completed or have under construction about $250 million in School District projects via the same Guaranteed Energy Savings Act. These projects speed up the scope development and the procurement for the District and in now schools, 19 we've reduced energy costs anywhere 20 from 15 to 50 percent, depending on 21 what's done in there, and included 22 major capital needs like boilers, 23 air-conditioning, proper ventilation, windows, remediating hazardous materials and much more. We are supporting the District to begin adding solar to school rooftops as it's appropriate and continuing these GESA projects to move them as quickly as possible. I'll give you just a quick example on our consumer programs, Built to Last and Solarized Philly. These are two consumer programs that really identify a need and then use energy as the entry point to address deferred maintenance, housing quality and affordability and climate adaptation and mitigation to help get to that 2050 goal. Built to Last is a program that layers, coordinates and supplements all of the City's existing home repair programs, including Basic Systems Repair, weatherization utility programs, nonprofit programs, health care programs and more to fundamentally restore safe, healthy, affordable homes for low-income homeowners and prevent displacement. Wherever possible, we electricify and provide air-conditioning to home via heat pumps and add solar to the roof for affordability. We have -- (Applause.)
Thank you. We've completed or are under construction in over 320 homes in about months with a waitlist of 13 over 1300 homes. We have current 14 funding for 400. I'd also like to 15 just mention Solarize Philly. It's 16 the largest program of its kind in 17 the nation with over 2700 homes 18 adding solar to their roof over the last seven years. 45 percent of those homes belong to low- and moderate-income families. Our success has set the stage for up to $250 million in federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, which we expect to find out this month. (Applause.)
Thank you. And I mentioned workforce development. I'll just say we partner primarily with existing workforce development organizations and industry experts to really flip on its head who benefits from the growing clean energy economy in Philadelphia. We run or support a variety of training programs like Bright Solar Futures, the Green Retrofit Immersive Training program or GRIT and others to bridge the gap with the industry often described as a labor shortage and the unemployment rate among marginalized populations in Philadelphia. Our approach is high-touch low-volume training and wraparound services to ensure that our trainees are fully supported to complete classroom training as well as field internships, earn valuable industry certifications and are able to successfully connect to and maintain full-time family-sustaining careers. And I'll just wrap up with a few recommendations for this Committee on additional steps Philly must take in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. First, we need city-wide accountability to specific goals across every City unit. (Applause.)
We have to hold ourselves accountable for our commitments. This means that transparency planning and oversight has to be non-negotiable and rise to the importance of our other most pressing challenges. It can be tough to prioritize what feels a long way off when we have immediate critical issues facing us on a day-to-day basis. But 2050 is not far off for the immense scaling up that we will need in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change in Philadelphia. We can do both, but it will require ongoing commitments. That means that all City departments should be integrating the City's climate strategy into performance metrics and all capital and maintenance projects must include a climate lens. (Applause.)
City projects are installing infrastructure that will last beyond 2050 now, but we still continue to install energy efficient and fossil fuel technology as the standard. We must provide consistent greenhouse gas inventories and enforce our existing rules. It also means that all City services and housing efforts, particularly those that serve low- and moderate-income communities must include climate standards, including PHA. Too often when there isn't enough to go around, we choose to install the least expensive furnace that just exacerbates energy poverty or to reroof a home with no insulation in the attic or provide a loan without giving homeowners or landlords enough information to choose a more efficient or long-term affordable solution. We put energy and climate action as a nice-to-have that we can deal with later. And while we have kicked the can down the road, we are ensuring that the very people we want to support are those now most vulnerable to the effects of climate change with the highest energy burdens. We must be willing to make longer-term decisions. My second recommendation would be to resource the City's Inflation Reduction Act strategy. Under the Kenney Administration, the City has directed tens of millions of dollars to enhance capacity for applying for federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, BIL or also known as the IIJA. The City has committed no 12 additional funding to date to support our efforts to draw down federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act or the IRA. That work is led by the Office of Sustainability and us at PEA and really asks a lot of the applicants and requires a different approach that does need funding. With some philanthropic support from the William Penn Foundation and others, we've been able to support over $2 billion in applications for competitive federal funding and expect to support over $3 billion in rebates and tax credits to projects in Philadelphia over the next five to seven years. We're asking the City to support this effort in FY25. We've requested an increase from the City to PEA's operating budget. In FY24 we had about 10 percent of our budget come from the 11 City, which was about $2.05 million 12 in FY24. We're asking for 3.6 13 million in FY25. We've also 14 requested $5 million for Built to 15 Last, which needs matching 16 non-federal funds in order to be 17 able to get the federal dollars to 18 low-income households. 19 (Applause.) 20
And we've 21 requested $2 million to the 22 Philadelphia's Green Capital Corp., 23 which is the City's Green Bank, to 24 provide loan loss reserves and other credit enhancements to make sure federal greenhouse gas reduction funds are available to low- and moderate-income communities. This $10.6 million in FY25 will ensure equitable access to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds for climate adaptation and mitigation in Philly. And then the last thing I'll just mention is to really use our utilities and our assets to lead climate efforts globally. We have that potential in Philly. Philadelphia has the largest municipally-owned gas utility in the country, PGW, the largest unregulated microgrid in the country at the Navy Yard, one of the largest steam loops in the nation owned by Vicinity, our own water utility with a history of innovation at the Water Department and a huge municipal government footprint. We have not to date held any of those utilities or assets to any standards for long-term decarbonization, a power Council certainly holds. (Applause.)
We have an opportunity to lead through innovation and we have all the ingredients to do so. PGW and PWD are incredible assets to help Philadelphia make this transition, and we must support their critical climate planning, encourage transparency, provide appropriate resources and hold them accountable. Utilities must share how their planning through 2050 is consistent or inconsistent with the City's carbon neutrality goals. And for the City-owned utilities, require regular disclosure of both progress and risks to their operations posed by climate change. I'm happy to provide further details on any of our programs or on our recommendations following this hearing. Thanks so much for the time today. Happy to answer questions.
I'm going to ask that Matt O'Malley from Vicinity Energy join this panel. Professor, we're going to ask you to testify next, but the Vice-Chair has a specific question she wants to ask of Emily right now. After the entire panel goes, then I'm going to open it up for questions from members of the Committee. But, Councilmember Landau, please.
Thanks. You said you're 15 percent of the way through the Streetlighting program. Where are you changing those streetlights? We are hoping this goes through an equity lens.
Yes. I love this question because you can see the two-week look-ahead on what's been completed at phillystreetlightimprovement.com. There's an active map that is updated regularly so you can see everything that's happening. We did a little bit of a start outside of our equity model because we had happened to get some fixtures available sooner than others, so we did some pedestrian-level fixtures up in the Northeast first. But now, we've moved on to alleyways, collectors and the local roads as well. So you can see we've definitely prioritized communities that have high Vision Zero impact, that have high crime using a variety of data sets in the City, and then also included other demographic and equity information in that formulation.
Real quick one last question: Approximately on average how much does it cost to get a house with the repairs fixed to a place where you can actually start talking about heat pumps and solar panels?
Great question. So we do it all at once. When we go into a home for Built to Last, we do a holistic home audit first. So they may have had access to Basic Systems Repair before. If not, we make sure they get that. That's up to $25,000. Built to Last is really Philly's Whole Home Repair program. That state program was designed after our Built to Last program. And so, we take that audit and then say, okay, what are all the programs that can contribute some funding to some piece of this. So everywhere we possibly can we're doing heat pumps and electrification. The average home is getting somewhere on the order of $50,000 to $60,000 across multiple programs. We subsidize that with various different funding sources at about $15,000 per home, and that gets them both electrification and solar.
Emily, we'll just keep going, right. I think we're kind of rolling in and then we'll let the next two panelists testify after that. Chair recognizes Councilmember Landau, then Councilmember Young.
Oh, Councilmember Lozada, then Councilmember Young. I'm sorry.
My question is, I understand that you said we could see where these units are being changed online. Is there a way for us to see it by District, right? And is there a report that you can get to us so that we can see exactly where it's being changed, when? What's the progress, right? What's next? So that when we're out in neighborhoods and people are saying, hey, Councilwoman, it's really dark out here, how can we get our specific block on the list to be changed, I'd like to see that broken down that way better. And then as these structures as we receive calls that the light on the block is out or that the light in the alleyway is out, are we trying to be as proactive as possible to not just go service that light and replace the bulb, but actually remove the structure because we know that eventually all of them have to be changed anyway, so are we kind of killing two birds with one stone or are we kind of putting a band-aid on it until we get to that location?
Yeah, great question. So yes to your first question. We will make sure that we get you a District layer in our GIS system so you can see exactly just for your District what's happening and when. And if you're ever going out to a specific neighborhood and you want us to run some data for you, just let us know. We're here in City Hall 566. You can always find us. So that's the first thing. Secondly, great question. You would still report that to the Streets Department for now until we're sort of through this process, which we've got another 18-plus months on construction. But until we're through it, everything won't be replaced. In cases where -- and Streets is continuing their normal process for this. They do have some LEDs in stock, but they're a whiter color than what we selected for this project. In Kensington, there's a lot of those white lights out there so they might deal with them with that existing inventory, but it really depends on the situation. So if you do have an issue and it seems like you're not getting what you're looking for from Streets, let us know and we can make sure we talk to the Project team and we can shuffle things around if we have to.
Thank you. You mentioned that I guess the priority for the replacement of the streetlights are based on Vision Zero; is that correct?
Is there any flexibility on prioritizing certain communities? Because for certain areas in North Philadelphia specifically, it's not Vision Zero that those constituents are more concerned with, but it's more of a safety issue, right. And so, Vision Zero may not have taken the safety of that community into account when determining when these lights should be replaced. And so, is it possible that we can change some of the metrics on determining when certain lights are being replaced in certain areas, in certain communities?
Yeah, absolutely. So the formula that we use to determine the ordering is three things. It's Vision Zero, nighttime crime instances and then other demographic and income information. So we're prioritizing the District and parts of those Districts that sort of meet all of those three criteria the most fastest. And so, there's a lot happening right now in the 5th, 7th and 3rd as well as lots of other parts of the City, but we've got multiple crews out there once moving forward as fast as we can. So if there's a particular part of the District where you're seeing issues that just can't wait, just let us know and we'll do our best. We try to take into consideration Councilmember feedback as well as we were putting that together. So, yeah, if there's something that especially has changed. But even if it hasn't, sort of reach out and let us know if there are hotspots.
I would just ask that the metrics be kind of reversed to have nighttime crime to be at the top.
It seems like you have some charges here for us. I'm reading your testimony and you closed out with some good recommendations specifically talking about Council and our authority to look at PGW, the Navy Yard and other places that aren't necessarily regulated. Elaborate a little bit on that. In a dream world if you were on this side, what type of regulations would you suggest we implement as it relates to expediting this 2050 Vision plan to more of a 2040 conversation?
Sure. And I'll just say it's anybody's guess as to whether we're on track for 2050 honestly. The stuff we're doing now is kind of the low-hanging fruit. It's things that can be budget neutral and there's an awful lot of that available still. But we have not spent a significant amount of dollars that we're not getting back in the form of energy savings. We haven't reorganized how we do things. We haven't sort of asked for a lot of change and we certainly haven't asked for sacrifice, right. I think we're dealing with what's in front of us on a day-to-day basis. And I think any budget decision that's made we are all hyper aware that that means that they have to say no to something else. And so, I think the City has been doing a great job at a lot of things and has been moving forward the best we can, but I think there are some not complicated institutional issues that Council could really play a role in solving. On the one hand, I think Council can hold departments and utilities accountable. PGW is a City entity. They are the only ones who know how to make their own decarbonization plan and they'll have to, so that's something they've been working on internally and I think have received a lot of feedback on. But this is a moment of change and innovation for them. And I think we can push them more to be more public about that and figure out what that really means for the City and for the utility. (Applause.)
I'd say the same thing about the Navy Yard. PIDC owns the utility down there. It's unregulated. It was owned by the Navy. And so, they can take on any amount of innovation that they want and it would be incredible to see PIDC looking to carbon neutrality at the Navy Yard as well. And those are tools that we can sort of push them and support them to take advantage of, especially in this moment of federal funding. There's just a ton of opportunity down there. Philly has really every ingredient to be a global innovator in clean energy. I think the Hydrogen Hub gives us a chance to talk about a regional energy system that benefits us long-term. But I think what it really requires is for Council to figure out where it fits for us to be talking about things that happen 35 years from now, 8 years from now. 9 I think that's been tough 10 for us to figure out how to give 11 you guys the things you need in 12 order to be able to do that. And I 13 think it's been tough for every 14 Administration to figure out how to 15 budget for that and how to 16 prioritize that. So that's the 17 conversation we'd love to see 18 Council leading going forward, how 19 do we really look to 2050 and 20 before that and figure out how well 21 we actually achieve it. It's not 22 going to be enough to do the things 23 that don't cost anything. 24
Okay. 25 So when you -- thank you. That was definitely a great response. And I think the next time we have this conversation maybe we need to invite PGW and PIDC as well as some of the other folks, PECO and maybe even some School District folks too. So that was some great recommendations. We appreciate it. One of the things you talked about in your testimony was the fact that you've created 7500 jobs while looking at over $900 million in projects. Social media is a way that people get a lot of information nowadays. And ironically often when people think about becoming cleaner, greener, you know, issues like what we're discussing today, carbon neutrality, people think about those jobs being eliminated, not necessarily jobs being created. So talk to me a little bit about the 7500 jobs that you created. What are the credentials? What type of jobs are we talking about? How are these jobs going to impact the future of our City? Elaborate a little bit, if you may, on that part.
Sure. Thanks so much for that question. So every time we run a project or a program, we're looking at how the contractors are attached to that project and how are they hiring and how do they scale up in order to meet the needs of that project. So, for example -- and we do this kind of small scale and big scale, right. So for streetlighting we have a manufacturing pod out in West Philly. It's five or six young people who are doing final assembly of light fixtures there. That's a process that has to happen somewhere so it mind as well happen here in Philly. And those are jobs that will last for two years, and then hopefully all folks will be hired directly by American Power or a partner at the end of that. And so, I think we look at sort of the short-term workforce development opportunity, how do you get a job today and then bigger term. So all of the other jobs are construction jobs, right. These are electricians. These are -- maybe they're engineers and auditors. Maybe they're in, you know, some other related to the energy project that you have in your hand. We also do a ton of development on solar industry. Philly has had a really tiny solar industry until very recently. And so, solar developers were hiring just unskilled construction, you know, general construction folks to come in and learn how to do solar. So we did that training in advance both in high school, we have a CTE program over at Frankford High School, and then also for young adults who work with PowerCorps. For folks that are returning citizens, we work with adults at ECA in Kensington doing training for both residential construction that feeds right into Built to Last, so we really looked at this kind of like a closed loop. The more we can create demand for labor, the more we can fill those positions with folks from our own communities that historically don't have access to this industry and are un- or underemployed.
Thank you. Are there any other questions for this particular witness?
Just a quick comment. Thank you, Chairman. I noticed that you mentioned PGW and you said we need to be holding them a little bit more accountable publicly and so forth. What does that even mean? What does that look like in terms of -- I think you were almost being general. I just wanted to see if you needed to be more specific about what's needed.
Sure. So I don't want to make the mistake of prescribing the actual steps I think PGW needs to make because what we need to see from them and also from the Water Department honestly who does wonderful things and lots of efficiency work but has so much further to go. From both of them, we need to see what does their 2050 decarbonization plan look like. Are they on track, are they meeting the City's goals, are they looking at the risks associated with climate change to their own operations. And if so, what are they doing about it. And I think we get kind of lost in the conversation of, okay, this is, for example, a capital project and these are the steps that we take to execute this capital project and maybe we talk about climate later, we have to start talking about it earlier so that as part of the planning process and the design of the work that they do. (Applause.)
And PGW I think is a great example of the potential for innovation. The Water Department produces a lot of biogas at the moment and there's potential -- I know there were questions earlier about composting. There's potential to do so much more with the resources that we have and we just so happen to have a gas utility here that knows how to get the most out of biogas and to turn it into things that are actually valuable for people. So we can be working together across utilities as well. And I think as far as the accountability we have the Gas Commission, we have PFMC for PGW, but we're not often asking about climate and I think that's where Council could be really helpful.
Well, thank you, Emily, for your testimony. I think you've gotten everybody in trouble today, right, PGW, Navy Yard, PECO, Water, Schools. No, but I think again when we first started the conversation, the overall purpose was to explore where we are as it relates to our 2050 goals and to see if we can expedite that, and I think you've given us a lot to think about as well as a lot of tasks. Because at the end of the day I'm joking about these departments, but we're serious about the citizens of Philadelphia. So we want to make sure that we're doing our part as a legislative body to hold the proper partners and organizations accountable so you can do your job, right, because that's what you're authorized to do to put us in a position to make sure that Philadelphia is as healthy as we are advertising. So, Emily, thank you for your testimony but more importantly your work as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Energy Authority is very much appreciated. And we will definitely have Part 2 of this conversation and invite a few more folks out so we can make sure that we're all moving in coordination and unison with one another, because I'm hearing that's the only way we even meet this 2050 goal, let alone try to move it up to whatever years we may be able to. So with that being said, again, Emily, thank you so much. We appreciate it. I'm going to ask that Rob and Matt both testify now. Rob, you've been here. Please state your name for the record. You may begin with your testimony. Matt, immediately after Robert we're going to ask that you state your name and begin with your testimony. And then members of the Committee, we'll open it up for questions for both members of this particular panel. Professor, you're up first. Thank you for your patience and good morning. PROFESSOR KUPER: Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Rob Kuper, K-u-p-e-r. Esteemed members of the City Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak today and provide context for the City's progress on its carbon neutrality goals. The history of climate planning in Philadelphia is extraordinarily impressive. Citizens of Philadelphia are fortunate to have so many people in offices working for them on this issue, including the Offices of the Mayor, Sustainability, Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability, the Philadelphia Water Department and the Philadelphia Energy Authority, among others. Moreover, Philadelphians are fortunate to have you Councilmembers taking climate change, sustainability and above all inequitable transitions seriously. I'm an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Temple University. I teach construction materials and methods, stormwater run-off and ecological restoration. In 2018, alarmed by the Special Report on Global Warming released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I began studying the climate emergency. Since then I've published peer-reviewed articles on travel- related greenhouse gas emissions, begun working with Temple colleagues to integrate climate change content into classrooms across the University, estimate emissions from campus buildings and ultimately persuade the University Board of Trustees to get aggressive and decarbonized. Why? It's like Temple says, because the world won't change itself. I aim to ensure Temple means it. I try to mean what I say and model low carbon behaviors. For example, I'm a vegetation who hasn't flown on an airplane in almost five years. I recognize that I'm a person of great privilege because of my skin color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, education, job, rank and income. Many citizens of Philadelphia do not have these same privileges and cannot change their behaviors. And yet, their impact on this earth is smaller and they're likely being and will be affected more by climate change.
And what follows, given peer-reviewed literature and other credible sources I've encountered, I offer some context for the City of Philadelphia to be more aggressive, urgent, creative, realistic and honest about addressing the climate emergency. By the way, if you've got my testimony highlight -- some of the numbers on there might change a little bit because I've been double and triple checking my sources and maybe finding a couple new ones. Climate change is real serious and happening now. Hurricane Ida flooded the Vine Expressway in September 2021. Philadelphia recorded only a trace of snow in Winter '22-23, the driest May on record in '23 and had a hazardous air quality from June 2023 Canadian wildfire smoke. degrees Celsius. In Philadelphia, the average number of days above 95 degrees Fahrenheit as recorded in 2014 was 3. degrees Fahrenheit, that number rises to 8 and 29. Today due to the presence of large areas of rooftops and pavement and lack of trees and green space, some areas of Philadelphia experience an urban heat island effect of to degrees Fahrenheit hotter. For every 1 degrees C, the atmosphere will hold 7 percent more moisture. 39 times more precipitation. 5 degrees C, as many of us know, the IPCC recommends net carbon dioxide emissions of 45 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. 75 percent was needed. That percentage goes up with every day. In 2006 and 2014 and 2019, this data was mentioned here today. 68 million metric tons -- metric ton is 2,204 pounds -- of greenhouse gases. 98 million metric tons. Now, it's important to note that was from 2019, five years ago. 98 12 million metric tons. It's also important to note that this is a cumulative problem. So those emissions are up there in the atmosphere doing their work for centuries. 5 percent. 46 and 12 percent of electricity generated is derived from methane, which is natural and coal respectfully. Over years methane 3 emissions are 83 times worse than 4 carbon dioxide. Each year Philly's 5 emissions contribute to Arctic sea 6 ice loss equal to over 23 square 7 miles or if you can imagine this, 8 the area greater than that spanning 9 from Cecil B. Moore to the Navy 10 Yards, north, south and then east, 11 west from Schuykill to the Delaware 12 Rivers. 13 Philly's emissions may 14 contribute to over $16 million in 15 labor productivity losses elsewhere 16 in the world, primarily in 17 equatorial regions due to elevated temperatures and heat exposure. 81 per ton adjusted for inflation. The social cost of carbon, the burden of emitting placed on society equals between $51 to $185 per ton. For every 4,434 tons emitted, one temperature-related death will occur between now and 2100. Again, remember those figures of what Philadelphia has emitted. 5ยฐC, we humans have a carbon budget of 250 billion tons. 38 years of this carbon budget left for the indefinite future. 45 years. The quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is as of January, 422 parts per million is comparable to the (inaudible) seen 4 million years ago when temperatures were 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer and sea levels were 16 to 82 feet higher than today. The warming associated with this increase in atmosphere of carbon dioxide will continue until emissions stop and is not reversible on a time scale of at least 1,000 years. Carbon neutral and net zero goals like Philadelphia's assume that the quantity of emissions is equal to the quantity removed from the atmosphere using technology or- nature-based solutions. 2050 carbon neutral and net zero goals are inherently problematic. Both are not zero. Absolute, real or true zero must the goal. Deforestation accounts for one-third of cumulative human- caused emissions in the last two-and-a-half centuries. Burning fossil fuels account for two-thirds of those emissions.
Nature-based solutions to remove carbon pollution like that proposed in the Philadelphia Climate Action Playbook cannot possibly sequester into carbon dioxide equal to what is emitted, but can serve other worthwhile purposes like increasing biodiversity, capturing, dispersing and taking up rain water, affording psychological restoration, reducing home energy costs and decreasing the urban heat island effect and cooling neighborhoods. Technological solutions to carbon pollution are problematic. Carbon that has been captured and stored underground may not stay there and it expands. Direct air capture now cost $750 to $1,000 to remove one metric ton of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It's cheaper to pollute than it is to extract it from the atmosphere. 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide humans collectively emit each year. Green stormwater infrastructure can help with more frequent intense storms and the volume and velocity of rain that falls from them. They increase by diversity, clean stormwater run-off and contribute to human psychological restoration. However, some forms of GSI have net positive carbon footprints over 30 to 40 years and rely upon mining and extraction of sand and aggregate to function properly. Electrifying everything with solar, wind and geothermal-powered energy is a worthwhile goal. Besides potential challenges related to intermittency storage transmission with some of these energy- generation sources, some like solar panels in wind turbines have lifespans of years and require 20 extraction of rare minerals that 21 are not realistically as of today 22 recyclable. The demand for steel, 23 concrete and aluminum needed to 24 build this infrastructure one study 25 reports will be substantial. Electric vehicles, which we've heard some about today, also rely on extraction of rare earth minerals. The quantity of material such as copper, lithium, cobalt, vanadium and nickel to replace one generation of internal combustion engine cars with EVs exceeds reported global production and reserves. Also, geopolitics will likely play into accessing these materials. We must move away from fossil fuels now. However, fossil fuels will be needed to build the transformation that Philadelphia and its residents need. For example, most construction machinery is diesel-powered. An alternative engine to fuel is not something easily replaced. Cheap potent fossil fuel energy has benefited many, but not all of us. There are many knowledgeable, skilled people in the industry that mean well, work hard and will encounter hardships that result from a transition away from fossil fuels. But please do not mistake my preceding comments for support of the fossil fuel industry, the continuation of fossil fuel use and hesitancy to transition to renewable energy. Over my entire lifetime of 46 years, leadership in the fossil fuel industry has known about and their scientists have accurately predicted the relationship between fossil fuel combustion, elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, elevated global means surface temperatures and the dire consequences in store for humanity. They, their lobbyists and political pawns blatantly lie to the public, deny and cast out on climate science, spread doom and despair and delay necessary action, all while profiting handsomely off of human suffering and ecological destruction. Climate action plans in other cities like Baltimore and Chicago are like Philadelphia's. You could say that Philadelphia is keeping up. But if every city has a flawed target, that being net zero or carbon neutral, Philly can lead and distinguish itself by targeting real zero. Philadelphia has many informative, thorough, useful science-based documents at their disposal. The Philadelphia Climate Action Playbook refers to many of these.
Based upon my review of some of the content, and I probably would have more to say with a more detailed review, I hope future actions will include the following: To focus on infrastructure for a hotter, wetter future, including trees, pools, splash pads, cooling centers, parks, various other roofs, be they green which many people know about, brown roofs and light roofs, rain gardens and other green stormwater infrastructure. Focus on the neighborhoods and people who are and will suffer the most. Globally percent of the 8 highest emitters emit more than the 9 bottom 50 percent. 10 Prioritize Complete Streets, and we've heard something about that today, that integrate walking, biking and expanded mass transit as well as stormwater infrastructure and trees. Focus more broadly on city-wide emissions, reductions instead of just municipal. ) PROFESSOR KUPER: Incentivize or penalize large non-state actors. I'm talking about commercial property owners, institutions like Temple, developers, corporations, et cetera, to induce necessary change. I don't know if you can do this but I'm going to say it anyway. Put a regressive price on carbon emissions. Invest the income in underserved communities who have and will experience the gravest risks associated with climate change. Require developers to publicly report project-embodied energy and emissions. This goes beyond operational emissions of buildings. It has to do with the materials that they're specifying and the machinery they're using to construct buildings. Ask for all projects. Will this contribute to the urgent transformation of Philadelphia that is needed or will it perpetuate the status quo. Target 100 percent replacement of infrastructure and utilities at end of life with electric only. A massive PR campaign much like Chairperson Phillips -- or Councilmember Phillips who has suggested earlier, I think is needed to educate and garner support for unprecedented rapid changes. I've got three more points here. The transformation that is necessary to achieve a sustainable Philadelphia will take time, time we don't have because of a 40-year delay and an immeasurable inertia. Further, the transformation requires time because unanticipated challenges await. We will make and must learn from our mistakes. Time, as Dr. King wrote, can be used either destructively or constructively. The people of ill-will will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We must use time creatively and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Philadelphia is one of the first, if not the first, planned cities in the United States. From what I understand, William Penn envisioned where we sit now as a green country town, that gardens and green spaces would be accessible to residents not just in the five squares but around residences. We cannot achieve Penn's vision without first having reached this point. Now, Philadelphia must model how to become a green country town. Imagine the vacant lots in Philadelphia as opportunities for residents to grow forests, food and community. Imagine an empowered independent citizenry of liberty. I can and I hope you can too. Change is coming. It will be uncomfortable and disruptive. Let's not deny it. Publicly confront the change. City Council must use every lever at its disposal to perform unprecedented acts, influence positive change and protect the citizens of Philadelphia. Thank you. )
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice- Chair through you to the members of the Committee. My name is Matt O'Malley. I am the Chief Sustainability Officer for Vicinity Energy, which is Philadelphia's largest district energy system. We are situated with about 41 miles of pipes throughout the streets primarily in Center City and West Philadelphia, and our CHP Plant is in Grays Ferry in the Council President's District. Prior to that, I spent 11 years on the Boston City Council where I was a District Councilor as well as the Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee. It was in my role there that I passed two pieces of legislation that were referenced earlier today. One was our first benchmarking ordinance, BERDO or the Building Energy Reporting Disclosure Ordinance back in 2013. And then in 2021, this was an item that was referenced by Liz Lankenau a little bit earlier. 0. We kept the acronym, but we changed the meaning to be the Building Emissions Reduction Disclosure Ordinance. And I have to thank you BERDO fans here. To be completely candid with all of you, my work with the Council on that side of the table is what brought me to Vicinity Energy where I am enormously lucky after having the great political and personal, professional highlight of being a locally- elected official to now work in the solutions business. And we at Vicinity, to harken back to your comment, Mr. Chairman, on what the business community is doing, what private enterprise is doing, how we're standing up to echo the comments by Emily Schapira who I've gotten to know pretty well over the last two years and could not agree more strongly. We at Vicinity are committed to standing shoulder-to- shoulder with the members of the Philadelphia Council, with the Parker Administration to do everything we can to decarbonize our business. We have a firm commitment. We are working literally around the clock. We are national leaders in what we're doing. I'm based in Boston. I'm down here about once a month and I'm so delighted to report that our decarbonization timeline has only been expedited in the City of Philadelphia, and that is because of leadership by the people in this building. That is because of the leadership in so many of our customers, our large institutional customers, who know that we need to meet this moment and we need to look through the lens of equity. We need to look through the lens of making sure we get this right. We simply do not have enough time to continue to set off these guidelines without doing the work. So the way the district energy system works, we have a centralized plan. As I mentioned, it's in Grays Ferry. We have a CHP, combined heat and power, which is how we capture waste heat to help heat about nearly 100 million square feet of property in the City of Philadelphia. We are changing how we create that heat. We are moving from gas-fire boilers to electric boilers. We are introducing some heat pump technology, some massive heat pump, industrial heat pump complexes. I'm talking 40 megawatts, which is prevalent all over European cities. We will have the first one in Boston in Cambridge by 2027, 2028. The second one will be in the City of Philadelphia shortly after that. We're doing this because we simply have no other choice. We no longer have the luxury to suggest that we can wait and we can get to this in 10, 18 years down the road. Action has to 19 happen now. 20 And again, I'm enormously grateful for the leadership of you, Mr. Chairman. We've had an opportunity to sit down. I haven't yet met some of your newer colleagues, but I look forward to doing that soon to see the commitment of this City and how Philadelphia will be a leader, and we at Vicinity are proud to stand absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder. So I wanted to keep my testimony brief to answer any questions you may have. And I know we're going to hear from some wonderful folks behind me as well.
But I came down just for this specific hearing because of its importance and to again reiterate the commitment that our company has as a neighbor and as a leader in this great city.
Thank you. Thank you both for your testimony. Of course, thank you for your service as well. As a former member of City Council, we can not say that. Chair recognizes Councilmember Phillips to address this panel.
Just very quickly. Thank you, Professor, and also thank you, Matt, for your testimony just now. I just want to say that all of the information that you have presented is incredibly profound. It's also really important that neighbors across the City of Philadelphia are aware of this. So, Professor, I do agree about a massive advertisement around this particular concern. What I'm also relatively interested in also learning about and have a little concern on is are we incorporating people from our neighborhoods to also rally around this message? The two of you are very highly-intelligent, educated folks who have gone to schools and studied this. But we don't -- I'm not hearing from people in our District, 9th District, where Councilmember Thomas and I reside, that are talking about this constantly. So you may be passionate about this, but if you're not bringing forth people that are from the neighborhoods that you want to see change in to get passionate about this, it's going to fall on deaf ears. And so, then also another thing is a lot of us have gone to nice schools and we're able to understand the words that you are echoing out of your mouth, but for some folks it's too complicated for them. They're like, what are you ultimately saying. So finding ways to break this down on a little bit more elementary school level is going to be really important if we're going to do a massive campaign around this. So these are things I wanted to ask are you working on or considering?
If I may first, I appreciate the question, Councilmember, and could not agree with you more. I think people care about climate issues, but at the end of the day your constituents, my former constituents, who's having safe streets, who's having good schools, who's making sure that they could get groceries on their table every week. And a former colleague of mine and someone who is a partner in environmental initiatives and now she's in the Congress, Diana Presley would always say, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power. And I think that really has to be part of how we look at and how we communicate about environmental initiatives. When we did BERDO, one thing that I think set us apart from a lot of other municipal decarbonization bills is we created an advisory board. We made sure it was rooted in community. One aspect of BERDO was that we assessed a fine of $234 for every metric ton equivalent of CO2 to incentivize businesses to basically offer penalty for those who don't comply. And that money is collected -- we haven't collected anything yet because 2025 will be the first year, but it's been ceded by our mayor with about $3 million. That money that's collected is going to go directly back into community and it's going to make a better economic case. Why does it make sense to plant more trees, because air quality is better. We are so acutely aware of so many respiratory issues, particularly in light of the pandemic and the fact that neighborhoods without as many trees see higher rates. So how do we make that health case, how do we make the economic case. One of the reasons why I support the Green New Deal is that it's been made very much a jobs bill, and that's one way that we need to talk about these initiatives. That's how we have to talk about making sure that our young people in school have the skills that they need to go out and join the green workforce. We're a proud union shop in the City of Philadelphia. We have good-paying jobs. We're always looking for talent, particularly as we make this transition. So how do we -- and its incumbent upon us in business to make a better economic case to get people interested in this. And it's also meeting people where they are when we have these conversations. BERDO passed in large part because I had announced I wasn't seeking re-election. Our mayor at the time Marty Walsh was tapped to be Labor Secretary and we had four members of the Council who were all running for mayor, not unlike what you all went through last year. And I said, we're going to pass this, this is something that we need to do together, we need to engage people, not everyone will agree with us. I'm a firm believer particularly in crafting legislation. We should never let perfect be the enemy of the good. We need to talk to folks. We need to make sure that things are -- some aspects of it are non-negotiable. I would never suggest that you all would compromise the needed action and the urgency of this moment. But meet folks where they are, talk to them, engage other folks. It's just not the same people who live and breathe this stuff every day. We need to build a broader, more reflective coalition on climate issues to actually get traction. (Applause.)
Thank you. PROFESSOR KUPER: I don't have anything to add. I agree with both of you.
One of the things that was said in the testimony thus far was something that kind of struck my attention. It was said that each year Philadelphia's emissions contribute to the Arctic sea ice loss equal to over square miles. 17 Help us understand that in 18 specific -- so when you're talking 19 about the impact that our behavior 20 is having, show the correlation 21 between that and some of the issues that we're seeing around global warming and other things that we're impacting by this negligent behavior. PROFESSOR KUPER: So there's been two studies that have been published; one first in 2016, one in 2018. Both studies found that there's a strong robust relationship between emissions and Arctic sea ice loss. And what it came out to be is square meter in the winter months and square meters in the summer months. So 3 square meters if you're familiar with a sheet of plywood is 4 foot by 8 foot. That's what 3 square meters is. So with that, I love metrics like this because then I can help visualize and understand the impact of actions. So then it was just a matter of taking the 2019 emissions -- I'm trying to find that on my page -- and multiplying it out and getting square miles, and then using Google Earth to determine what that means in terms of square area in Philadelphia. And that's 1 mile. So by 2050 they're projecting that September Arctic sea ice would be gone -- or Arctic sea ice would be gone in the summer months. What that means is then you're going to get a feedback where the oceans get warmer because they're darker, they absorb more solar radiation and it's going to melt that Arctic sea ice, so the sea levels are going to rise. And then of course, as the ocean gets warmer it also expands. So those two processes together are going to increase sea level rise. I'm not sure if I answered your question entirely. But if I haven't, I'd be happy to explain more.
No, you definitely did. I wanted you to elaborate on that because in the middle of reading and listening to your testimony, that was a stat that was alarming to me. And I'm wondering based on some of the things that you've heard today, what could we do to kind of curb the direction we're going in, what are we doing well, what more do we need to do. I see Emily is still here. She's still on my mind as it relates to her testimony. What could you add to some of the recommendations that she made and how can we put ourselves in a position to be able to curb the efforts that we're seeing so we're not having this lasting impact on our bodies of water around this? PROFESSOR KUPER: Yeah. Well, I think all the things that I heard today are wonderful and I would support all of them. They of course know much more than I do, especially in terms of policy which I'm fairly ignorant about. What could we do more. The only thing that I can think of, I think there's an expectation that the way many of us are living now will continue if we get to zero, whether it's carbon neutral or whatever, whatever you want to call it, I think that's unrealistic. I think some of us more than others, and again if I refer back to this kind of statistic of the top 10 percent of emitters emit more than the bottom 50 percent. Some of us, including myself, have got to use less, want less, waste less and need less. And that's a very uncomfortable message for people to say and receive. But I think it's a necessity. I can't say much more than that. But some of the things I did mention, in Philadelphia I rode the train in today and I see a lot of construction going up. And I teach materials and methods so I'm thinking about concrete. I'm thinking about the things that could be done to improve the carbon emissions associated with concrete. There's a couple of things, but you just can't do much with it. And the same thing with all the steel that's going up. There's many buildings that are going up. You can use electric arc furnaces to make steel. But now, it relies upon coking coal. I mean, it's embedded into everything that's happening and it's a stark contrast in the City of Philadelphia when you ride through Center City and you see all these structures going up, huge structures that are reliant upon fossil energy not only to make but to operate. And then you go to North Philly around Temple's campus. It's a stark contrast. And it's these people around Temple that need the attention and they need the infrastructure and they need the support financial, social and otherwise. How can -- beyond that change, I don't know. How do we -- I just don't know. It's perplexing and it's complicated.
Now, that's fair. I completely understand. It's a tough issue to essentially think through. But similar to what was said I think by Matt and people earlier, the time is now to act. So what we do know is that we have to have these tough conversations. We have to participate in brainstorming sessions that might not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we desire, but the effort is there, the will is there. We recognize the problem. I can't help but refer back to what Councilmember Phillips talked about when he talked about education, advertising. Listening to what you're saying, Professor, changing behaviors require in all industries and aspects of life here in the City and there's no way to get to that point without having the proper opportunity to communicate the problem and create platforms to have the dialogue so we're educating people and informing so they know what's going on. So I appreciate you being here, both of you. Are there any other questions from members of this Committee for this particular panel?
Yeah. Councilmember Lozada will close us out with a statement. Thank you both.
Thank you both for your testimony. I think for me just looking at some of your testimony, it's alarming because in Districts like mine, especially in the neighborhood of Hunting Park which is considered to have the highest heat index in the City of Philadelphia, there's still a level of connection that we haven't made between what we are seeing and what some of the universities are researching with the community, right. How do we get them to understand that this could be a health issue with them, right, that if we improve or increase the tree canopy in their community, if we change how we treat the environment in their neighborhoods, that we could better improve their quality of life, and that it's a safety issue, right. It becomes when it's greener and it's cleaner, it's more beautiful. Some of those activities that are not in their best interest tend to kind of move away. So I want to figure out how do we partner with some of the universities who are doing this work on the ground? I will use Drexel University who during my time at Esperanza worked very closely with some of the residents of Hunting Park, but there was still this resistance from residents about just something as improving the tree canopy. So how do we work closely with some of you who do this work every day? What is the language? What is the basic information that we need to share with residents to help them understand that this is not just great for the City, but this is directly impacting them and their families on a daily basis. Whatever we can do to be able to just break the language down in a way that they can understand is something that I really want to work towards doing. And then looking at tree canopy across the City, right. For many years, we planted the wrong trees in certain neighborhoods. And now, we're saying to residents it's your responsibility to take that tree down and pay for that, right. How do we change that process, right? How do we look at the heat index in certain neighborhoods, identify where some of those tree structures are? How do we remove them and then encourage them to plant trees that are better? Even though it's going to take 30 years to really provide the canopy that's necessary, but the tree is there, how do we start that process and how can you all partner with us to make that happen? PROFESSOR KUPER: Well, Philadelphia does have a tree plan and I think it's quite good. I didn't mention that in my testimony. So already Philadelphia is thinking about it and working on it to increase their urban tree canopy. From what I can recall, the tree canopy did decrease so we got to turn that around. And it does require going out and engaging the community and building trust with the community and figuring out the messages that are most effective and getting them to embrace trees and some of those other green infrastructure that's necessary in order to cool the neighborhoods. And to really emphasize the benefits, educate them. I think generally there's a disconnect for many of us, including my children, with nature. And we've got to emphasize the benefits of it, which are many, and get them to educate and appreciate and really instill some wonder in trees and nature and other aspects of the green infrastructure that will ultimately help them.
If I just very briefly, Mr. Chair. Councilmember, I appreciate the question because I think it is so spot-on, on how we need to talk about these issues. This isn't just about global warming or climate change, although those are important. We need to make a clear and concise connection to public health, to public safety, to job growth and development. And that's how we're going to continue to build coalition. And it's about making sure everyone has a seat at the table. (Applause.)
I met some great friends from POWER Interfaith. They are a powerhouse in terms of advocacy. We need to include them. We need to include other opportunities as well as folks in the business community. And at Vicinity as I mentioned, we're committed and we'll have the uncomfortable conversations that we need to have to make sure that we are living up and fulfilling both the letter and the spirit of any legislation that can come from this Committee that you all will continue to work on because it is that important to do so. So I appreciate the question. Trees are one aspect of it. There's so many other ways that we can talk about it. Gas leaks, fixing gas leaks and how that can have such a profound impact. Having EV infrastructure is important, but I think that that's a luxury that we need to be very cognizant of when we're drafting this legislation, that it just shouldn't be wealthy people who can afford an EV who should benefit. And that's why if you were to create some sort of advisory group the way Boston did, I think it can really prioritize EJ communities to make sure that we invest that money in communities that is equitable across the board.
Thank you so much. I mean, I think that when you start talking to community residents who have so many issues and you start talking about global warming or use terms like global warming, there's no connect -- they can't make that connection, right. But when we start breaking it down and really telling them on the ground how this is going to impact their daily lives and their families, I think that we will get a different reaction. They'll be more receptive to figuring out how we better protect the neighborhood and the City and the environment in general.
So just want to be a little more conscious about how we use terms because some folks can't understand.
Yeah, and lan -- Councilmember just mentioned with language access, right. We need to understand or remember that folks don't always speak English. And in our city, we also have a real digital divide. And so, information can't just be accessible online. There has to be a grassroots effort to ensure that folks are really getting the information in their hands and at their doors.
And we have members from the Mayor's team that's still here. We appreciate you staying and being part of the conversation so you can listen to some of the concerns that are being communicated, and I think Councilmember Landau just -- I'm sorry. Councilmember Lozada just raised some great points that we should consider as we continue to explore this conversation as well as other issues related to our 2050 goal. So I want to say thank you to this panel for testifying. I do want to apologize because the hearing is running a little -- it's a little lengthy, but I think that this speaks to the importance of the issue. We didn't start that late, right, maybe about 11:00, but we've been here well over two hours because this issue is that important. We care that much about this issue and clearly based on the people who are still here engaged in the conversation, you all care too. But definitely thank you to the Admin for staying to be a part of our dialogue. With that being said, I'd like the Clerk to call the next panel to come testify. Thank you both for your testimony and your expertise. (Applause.)
The Committee will next hear from Clean Air Council, Sean Hoffmann, if you'll come forward; Green Building United, Daniel Marzec who will read testimony from Rich Freeh; Philly Thrive, Shawmar Pitts, if you'll call forward; and POWER, Pastor Rashid, if you'll come forward. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
We're going to continue with the same path that we've been on. So we're going to ask all four of you to start by stating your name for the record and then beginning with your testimony. And once the entire panel is finished, we'll jump right into it.
Good afternoon. My name is Sean Hoffmann and I'm an attorney with the Clean Air Council and the Legislative Director for Clean Air Action Fund.
My name is Daniel Marzec, Communications and Policy Manager with Green Building United.
My name is Shawmar Pitts. I'm Co-managing Director at Philly Thrive and a lifelong Philadelphia resident.
I'm Jonny Rashid, Pastor for West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship and part of POWER Interfaith.
Sure. Thank you so much, Councilmembers, for the opportunity to testify today and thank you so much for holding this very important hearing. As I mentioned, I'm an attorney with Clean Air Council and Legislative Director for Clean Air Action. We fight for your constitutional right to a healthy environment as a Pennsylvanian. I'm also a true believer in Mayor Parker's vision for Philadelphia to become America's cleanest, safest and greenest big city. But that will not happen unless and until we step our game up here in Philly. Last year the Clean Air team that I am a part of lead over 80 public health and environmental action campaigns engaging over 8,000 people. We achieved 10 major legal victories, including at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and had 26,000 new users utilize GoPhillyGo, an app we designed to encourage fossil fuel-free trip planning via bikes, walking and public transit. Clean Air team works on environmental and lifesaving public health issues, but today I'm here to talk about climate change. And I think it's important. We've heard a lot of fabulous information and data and it can get very complicated, and I think it's important to simply as possible sort of discuss what it is here these problems that we're dealing with. Fossil fuels have literally changed the way the planet functions. The consequences are global and devastating. Philadelphia's made some great strides in the Office of Sustainability and others who we've heard from today should be commended for that. But we are not on track to become the cleanest, safest, greenest city. This is the City of Brotherly Love. And we've addressed this already today, we need to show that love to every Philadelphian, particularly those who live in neighborhoods hardest it by the effects of climate change. The primary driver of climate change just so we're clear for the record is fossil fuels, including coal, oil and frack gas, also known as natural gas. To get energy from fossil fuels, we burn or combust them. Every time we burn fossil fuels, they release emissions that cause climate change and harm our lungs even if we can't see them. Every time you turn your natural gas burner on in your kitchen, that releases emissions into our homes that are bad for our lungs and bad for the planet. There is no such thing as a clean burning fossil fuel, full-stop. It's simply a question of how dirty they are when we burn them. Extracting, transporting and processing them is also very dangerous. A town about 100 miles west of here has been on fire since 1962, Centralia, Pennsylvania thanks to the coal beneath it. And I'm sure everyone here has heard of the East Palestine train derailment and public health disaster that was as President Biden recently described it, not an act of God but an act of greed. And we've also talked about plastics here today, which is inextricably linked to fossil fuel use. Most plastics are derived from petroleum, from oil. It is also an immense problem that is totally connected to our use of fossil fuels. The damaging impacts from climate change as we've discussed today are not hypothetical. We have already seen what that looks like here in Philadelphia. Philly went almost two years without decent snow, then 60 degrees in February. And just this past weekend it was unseasonably warm. We see heat records summer after summer and we know what follows. Climate change causes annual flooding that we once considered a once-in-a-century event that now happens almost yearly. The Delaware River is expected to rise as much as a foot within the next years. And 18 these impacts are felt most by 19 those who live in historically 20 disadvantaged neighborhoods, who 21 also cannot afford to relocate or 22 protect themselves from heat and 23 flooding.
24 Neighborhoods like Cobbs 25 Creek, Point Breeze, Strawberry Mansion and Hunting Park are among those most vulnerable to heat in Philadelphia, with some of them showing heat degrees higher than 5 other parts of the City, 22 6 degrees. Eastwick, Germantown, 7 Manayunk and East Falls are some of 8 the most vulnerable neighborhoods 9 in Philadelphia to flooding, but 10 that list will likely grow as the 11 river levels rise. 12 Voters under the age of 40 13 view climate changes as a 14 bipartisan issue. With each 15 election cycle, Millennials and Gen 16 Z make up a greater proportion of 17 the electorate. And nowadays most 18 of us are concerned about climate 19 change and the state of our 20 environment. Elected officials who 21 do not keep up risk getting voted 22 out. Our City's goal is to hit carbon neutrality by 2050. To even meet that let alone claim the title of greenest biggest city in America, we need to move away from the use of so-called natural gas as quickly and completely as possible. That means Philadelphia Gas Works should become the Philadelphia Geothermal Works. )
It's already PGW. You don't even have to rebrand. You keep all trucks, all the signs, it's already there. PGW has been with Philly since 1838 and that isn't something that is to be cast aside lightly. But instead of allowing PGW to waste mountains of money on replacing aging fossil fuel infrastructure, we must become a global model for the transition to clean energy. PGW is currently exploring the viability of geothermal, but we must demand it and accelerate the process. Every new gas line installed, and they're being installed as we speak, pushes us further from our goal and invests more money in dirty fossil fuels. Investing in clean geothermal now just makes sense financially and environmentally. Philadelphia also needs to lean into building energy efficiency and electrification to reduce our emissions, save money and become more climate resilient, and that's something we've heard a lot of great info about already today. Something I like to say a lot is the cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy we never have to use. Helping homeowners with new windows, better insulation and energy-efficient electric heat pumps would go a long way to lower Philadelphians' energy bills and more efficiently heat and cool our homes, all with lessened air pollution. It's been mentioned earlier, we've got an old housing stock here in Philly and we love our old buildings, but they are drafty. We can do a lot to fight climate change just by insulating our homes. Thanks to the federal tax credits from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, there are more incentives for energy efficiency than ever before, ever in American history. Philadelphia should help its residents tap into those resources, especially in the most vulnerable parts of the City, and it's great that we've already had some good discussion on how to do that. Meeting the challenges of climate change is extremely difficult. And as has been said, we've hit the low-hanging fruit already. We're at a point where major leadership is required and tough decisions have to be made. But it's now or never. And Philadelphia, as I said before, absolutely can be the cleanest, safest, greenest big city in America. We're a world class city. We all know that. And we can pioneer ways to be carbon neutral by 2050 while protecting those most impacted by climate change and saving money along the way. The fossil fuel lobby may have its hand in Harrisburg, but not in Philadelphia. And the Clean Air team and I stand ready to assist in any way we can to ensure Mayor Parker's vision for Philadelphia becomes a reality. Thank you. (Applause.)
Good afternoon. Thank you, Councilmembers Thomas and Landau --
Just real quick will you restate your name before you speak for the
Thanks. Daniel Marzec, Green Building United. My name is Daniel Marzec, Communications and Policy Manager for Green Building United. Through education, advocacy and strategic initiatives, Green Building United promotes the development of buildings that are sustainable, healthy for inhabitants, resilient and cost-effective. Our community's made up of architects, engineers, building operators, policymakers and advocates, individual residents and businesses from across our regions. Thank you so much, Councilmembers Landau and Thomas, for holding this space for this important discussion today. I want to open by first addressing the importance of climate action. As we've heard from others today so far that the impacts of climate change are here. The last three years alone have been some of the hottest on record. Toxic air quality from wildfires have made our air some of the worst in the world last summer. And in 2021, the impacts from Tropical Storm Ida devastated communities across Philadelphia and inundated the Vine Street Expressway. It's not a surprise. At end of the Nutter Administration, the then Mayor's Office of Sustainability published Growing Stronger, a report on expected climate impacts in Philadelphia. A decade later we've seen many of those impacts come true. There is some good news. Thanks to the commitments that the City has made, reductions have been made and we are on track to at least avert the worst-case scenarios reported in Growing Stronger, but it's extremely critical that we continue to act on our commitments and accelerate action to keep on track or exceed our goals as to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. As you may have heard already, in Philadelphia the entire two-thirds are emissions. Carbon emissions come from the buildings and electricity grid that powers them. At Green Building United, we're focused on our built environment, the buildings that we live, grow and play in. And we're identifying and supporting efforts to cut emissions from existing buildings and new construction, Philadelphia's homes, businesses, schools and nonprofits. Philadelphia has programs in place now that are working to cut emissions in the built environment while reducing energy bills and creating job opportunities for Philadelphians. Thanks to former Councilmember Blondell Reynolds-Brown, for the past decade large buildings have been required to track and report their admissions on an annual basis, a process called emergency benchmarking. In 2019, City Council added a requirement for many large buildings to tune up their existing systems. Green Building United manages this program, and benchmarking alone has led to an average 5 percent reduction energy use over the past decade, and we're starting to see an additional savings of 4 percent for buildings that have completed the Building Energy Performance Policy programs. At the residential levels, City initiatives like the Basic Systems Repair program and Restore, Repair, Renew help residents get their home to state of good repair. These kinds of programs are critical for energy efficiency. While these programs require more funding and could better emphasize emissions reductions, it's important to know that home repair is climate action. Funding these critical programs benefits our most vulnerable neighbors while making progress towards our climate and emissions goals. In recent years, the Philadelphia Energy Authority's groundbreaking Built to Last program has brought together many of these existing home repair programs and brings in the expertise on climate emissions reductions and health while also helping seniors stay in their homes for longer and avoid community displacement. With all that said, these programs alone won't eliminate emissions from buildings. In many buildings, residents are left out of current policies.
We need to accelerate this action to meet our climate goals and ensure Philadelphians benefit from the clean energy transition that results in good-paying family- supporting local jobs, affordable housing and a better quality of life for all residents. Now's the time to be talking about decarbonization in Philly. We have a new Mayor, who has renewed pledges to meet Philadelphia's climate goals and the dedicated leadership in City Council who's ready to resource this work and make it possible. We also have the Biden Administration making the most ambitious investments in climate action in history via the Infrastructure Investment Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. This funding is just the beginning to reach -- this funding is just beginning to reach Philadelphia. And over the next years, we'll 5 make it possible for City 6 businesses and residents to 7 accelerate action on climate to 8 meet the goals set forth by the 9 City of Philadelphia. 10 We do applaud Mayor Parker's commitment to upholding meeting Philadelphia's climate goals. We agree with the Mayor when she calls on City leaders to work together and take an all-of- city approach to accomplish our goals, including climate action. It will take concerted efforts from both the private and public sectors to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. City departments and quasi governmental agencies like SEPTA and Philadelphia Gas Works must be resourced and held accountable for their efforts to meet the challenge of climate action in our city. As Mayor Parker has said, if it's not in the budget or not someone's job, it won't get done. )
Over the next month -- thank you. Over the next month, we look forward to reviewing the Parker's Administration budget and meeting with Councilmembers and staff to encourage further investment in climate action in key departments, including the Philadelphia's Office of Sustainability, Department of Licenses and Inspections, Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation and the Philadelphia Energy Authority. We're also convening conversations of private and public sector partners today, in fact, around the next generation of building performance policies, building on the great work that is already in place while recognizing the imperative to move quickly to ensure we are playing our part in cutting emissions to realize the benefits of a cleaner, greener and more sustainable future of all Philadelphians. I would like to close on two themes to keep in mind as City Council pursues further action on climate in Philadelphia. The first one is providing regulatory certainty. Increasing the ambition of climate programs seems daunting. But one message that we have received at Green Building United for members of the building community and others is that they are seeking regulatory certainty. The writing is on the wall. They know they need to reduce their emissions. They need guidance from City government. Giving building owners clarity on how Philadelphia intends to meet 2050 targets will help them plan ahead and make smart investments. The second point, job creation. For almost a decade, Philadelphia Energy Authority has been tracking job creation through their energy campaign. They set a goal of creating 10,000 new jobs. And as you heard earlier, they're on track to meet that goal or exceed it. Thinking about all the work that's still left to do in this important area, think of all those potential jobs just waiting to be created. And each and every one of those needs and should be done by Philadelphians. Thank you so much for your time and I appreciate the opportunity to be here. (Applause.)
Yes. My name is Shawmar Pitts. I want to apologize anyway before I even get started because I'm really excited right now from all the testimony that we heard and how important this hearing is and the history of our city. And sometimes I can't contain my excitement, right. So you might see that, right, while I'm sitting here talking, right. I'm a lifelong Philadelphian, and I'm the Co-managing Director of Philly Thrive. Philly Thrive is an environmental housing justice organization that represents hundreds of Philadelphia residents, mostly based in Grays Ferry, but not limited to Grays Ferry. We're worldwide. We'll help people anywhere. Grays Ferry's an environmental justice community in all senses of the word. We are in the 97th percentile in the entire country for rates for asthma and we have a greater than percent chance of being severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years. The majority of residents are low income with a significant percentage of senior citizens. Populations who are most at risk in the face of climate disaster and our community was poisoned for decades by the East Coast largest oil refinery. According to the City's Climate Action Playbook that you all wrote, buildings and industry account for 75 percent of Philadelphian's carbon emissions, 75 percent. We have the solutions. We know what it will take for a just transition away from fossil fuels. We just have to act on it. We have a tendency to cling to the past and finance the past, knowing that we need to invest in the future for the sake of our children. The systems we are financing are unhealthy. Last fall Philly Thrive went out and we talked with our community. We surveyed over 100 long-term Grays Ferry residents about their housing needs. By far the biggest need named by over 60 percent of long- term residents is home repairs. People are losing their homes because they can't afford to make essential repairs. We have an opportunity in Philadelphia to address the needs of our long-term residents. And today I just want to elaborate on two things. I want to talk about the opportunities presented by home repairs and I want to talk about the redevelopment in the Bellwether District and PGW so that we can enact this transition. We have an opportunity in Philadelphia to address the needs of our long-term residents and keep them in their homes and meet the City's carbon neutrality goals at the same time. Repairing homes in a way that increases energy efficiency and adds clean energy is a no-brainer way to transition from fossil fuels. This project -- this process reduces energy costs for low-income residents. It improves our air quality and health and will drastically support our city to reach our climate goals. The City has a solution. We need to fund the Philadelphia' Energy Authority's Built to Last program. (Applause.)
This is a holistic home repair program that includes weatherization, heat pumps and solar energy. Our City Council needs to include $5 million for Built to Last in this year's budget in the coming year. We'll need much greater investment from all levels of government, but it is crucial for the City to invest now so that the program can continue to develop, improve and expand. Once again, buildings in industry account for 75 percent of Philadelphia's carbon emissions. Grays Ferry borders the Bellwether District at the site of the former PES Oil Refinery. It makes up 2 percent of Philadelphia's land mass, the largest redevelopment in Philadelphia's history. Philly Thrive and other RCOs in South and Southwest Philly have been negotiating with Hillco for pretty much four years to make sure this development is fossil fuel-free so we have clean air in our community. If we're serious about carbon neutrality by 2050, then you, our City Council officials, need to mandate that all future large developments in Philadelphia, including the Bellwether District, be fossil fuel-free. (Applause.)
Now, this is tough. This is tough because financially a lot of people, like I said, we cling to the past. And in our state of Pennsylvania, we have a natural gas reserve and we have Shell and we have frack and this is big business in our state so it's tremendous pressure from that industry to try to keep us on that path so that they can make the money that they're used to making. We got to break away from that because it doesn't help us. It doesn't serve us. And for us to believe, I think that 2050, right, that's why -- I was just sitting there and when Councilman Thomas said, how can we speed this up and make it 2040, take 10 years off, right, because we don't have until 2050, right. I don't know where that number came from, but we don't have until 2050 to get it right. We don't. We don't. (Applause.)
That's wishing. I'm hoping we got until 2050. But from what I'm seeing, we don't have until 2050. We got to act right now. We can't take steps backwards. If you imagine me as the City of Philadelphia and you imagine that carbon neutrality is the door right there, we can't take not one step in that direction that way. We got to go that way. So we got to get away from natural gas. We got to get away from all those natural fossil fuels. We have to do it now. (Applause.)
We need City Council to take leadership in transforming PGW. One of PGW's plants is right in our neighborhood and we're affected by PGW's decisions as ratepayers and as people who live with gas appliances in our homes. If we're going to move from fossil fuel to clean energy in Philadelphia, PGW has to change drastically. We've been testifying at Gas Commission hearings, at the Public Utility Commission hearings for years. PGW will continue to hold back the transition to clean energy until City Council and the Mayor's Office require them to change. They won't do it on their own. (Applause.)
Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is the bare minimum of what we need to protect the health, safety and well-being of our communities. We have to start now. The City is not currently taking the actions needed to achieve this goal, and it seems as if we know this because that's why we're here for this hearing today. You are the ones who called this hearing and I'm so glad you did. We need energy-efficient home repairs by allocating $5 million to Built to Lastin the City budget and we need all new development, including the Bellwether District to be free of fossil fuels, and we need City Council to make PGW transition away from gas infrastructure. And in closing, I just want to say that I've spoken to the representatives at Hillco about going green, right. And this was my first request in trying to establish some negotiations for community benefit agreement for my community. And a lot of the RCOs they came in and they was talking about how much money, how much money, what you going to give us, what you going to give us. So when I came and I sat down at -- we was in the park, at the picnic table in the park, you know, they said everything about money. You know, I wasn't really concerned with money too much. My first request was that we want 100 percent fossil fuel-free green energy used in the construction for all the heat in all the buildings in the all the energy for these new buildings. This is what we need. And we want this whole place cleaned up from the contamination that was done for over 150 years because it affects us. And everybody looked at me like I was crazy because I wasn't talking about money. But I am talking about money because you need investment to be able to do those things and that's what people couldn't see that far. So we do need money and we do need investment, but it has to be put in a position to be used to make us fossil-free so that we can save this planet and save ourselves at the same time. And we have to be able to -- because the hardest thing for me to do is like when Councilman Phillips said, how do we bring this like all the people that testified, all the language that they use, how do we make our residents just understand what we're talking about when you're using these big words and all this language, right, how can you make that relate to our everyday lives because it's all connected. Environmental justice is connected to every justice that you can name. It's just intertwined like I got my hands locked. It's intertwined with racial justice. It's intertwined with social justice. It's intertwined with economic justice. It's all connected and we need to make a way and we got to stand up and be strong and be forceful, and we have to be resoluting, knowing that we're doing the right thing just because people not going to be able to make the money they used to make. They're going to have to come out of their comfort zone. PGW can't be Philadelphia Gas Works. It got to be Philadelphia Geothermal Works just like he said. We got to be confident and know we're doing the right thing, so we got to do it. We don't have choice. That's it. That's it. (Applause.)
So thank you so much. I appreciate y'all letting us come here and just give y'all what we need to give y'all because we need y'all. Man, we need legislation. That's how we going to do it. We need legislation on this right here. That's what we need. That's how we going to change it, legislation. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
I'm Jonny Rashid. I'm Pastor for West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship. And I'm a preacher, but I won't preach like my brother just did there. POWER's a multi-racial, multi-faith organizing movement that works for racial and economic justice for a livable planet on a livable planet, and there's dozens of congregations and thousands of people connected to us throughout the City. So your actions as representatives over the next couple of years will determine whether we have the capacity to be a thriving city, not just in the near term but in the future too. We're not on track for a carbon neutrality by 2050 and we're certainly not on track to get there by 2040 which is a more responsible goal. So I'm going to outline two actions that we need City Council to take focusing on repairing Philadelphians' homes and transforming PGW. Our members are harmed by multiple overlapping crises in our city. Unaffordable housing, high rates of poverty and gun violence, unaffordable energy bills and more. And we're also facing a climate emergency, flooding, heat waves wildfire smoke, all that is hurting us. And if we don't respond with urgency to stop fossil fuel emissions, we'll create a legacy of devastating harm. And these problems are intraconnected. We don't have to choose between fighting against poverty, tackling gun violence, preventing displacement and addressing the climate crisis. By focusing on housing and energy, we can tackle multiple crises at once. First, we need large scale public investment to repair and decarbonize our homes. That will improve people's health and it will heal -- stay in their homes and afford their energy bills, create good jobs and stop fossil fuel pollution. The Philadelphia Energy Authority's Built to Last program is a critical initiative that should receive more investment right now, so we urge you to provide at least $5 million for the Built to Last in the next budget for the City. City Council must work to ensure that PGW is accountable for its role in achieving our City's 2550 carbon neutrality commitment. And we need you to make the City's 2050 carbon neutrality deadline binding into closely supervise PGW's decarbonization to make sure it stays on track. The City owns PGW and fossil fuels that it sells are one of the largest sources of climate pollution in our city, so we must replace those fossil fuels entirely with clean energy over the next 13 to 25 years, and we need to protect 14 low-income residents at every step 15 in that process. 16 We've attempted to work 17 with PGW for the last three years. 18 We hope PGW will lead the 19 transition to clean energy. But 20 instead we've seen PGW executives impede it. In two examples, they continue to pursue new gas customers aggressively. Just this year they're proposing to spend $19 million on infrastructure for new gas customers and they're planning on spending upwards of $8 billion over the next decade to replace gas pipes even though we need to stop burning gas by 2050. They declined our request to hold even a single stakeholder meeting about potential alternatives to that plan. So we urge City Council to require PGW to implement policies and budgets that match the 2050 carbon neutrality goal with clear milestones along the way and participatory transparent planning. (Applause.)
Dr. King invoked this quote, "The fierce urgency of now." This phrase applies in 2024 as we face the climate crisis. And those of us who have the least wealth and power are harmed most. So what kind of city will you leave as your legacy. Now is the moment for fierce urgency and we're counting on your leadership. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you all for your testimony. In the spirit of time, I want to allow the next panel to come and testify. If you all can just hang right back there. You don't even have to go on the other side. If we can just call the next two panelists up, and then we'll do all six, both the third panel and the fourth panel together for questions just in the spirit of time because I know that we're a little over schedule.
Torrey Fishman from Zipcar and Jay Arzu from Weitzman School of Design, if you would come forward. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Mr. Fishman, if you'd state your name for the record, you can begin with your testimony. As soon as he's done, Jay, if you could do the same, that would be great. Thank you.
Thank you. Torrey Fishman from Zipcar. Good afternoon, Chairman Thomas and members of the Legislative Oversight Committee. My name is Torrey Fishman and I serve as Manager of Public Partnerships and Policy from Zipcar. I appreciate the opportunity by provide testimony on how Zipcar and car sharing can help advance the City's carbon neutrality goals and to answer any questions you might have. Zipcar is the world's leading car-sharing network, driven by a mission to enable simple and responsible urban living by reducing the need for personal car ownership. Car sharing allows Zipcar members to reserve vehicles by the hour or by the day typically from a location just a short distance from home. By sharing a car, fewer personal vehicles are on the road which means less congestion, less carbon emissions, less curb and parking competition and more free space in neighborhoods across the City for people, not cars. While Zipcar has a national presence, we consider our relationship with Philadelphia to be a particularly important one as our President Angelo Adams is a proud Philly native hailing from the 9th Councilmanic District. While Angelo regrets that he couldn't be here today, he recently visited to help launch our new partnership with the Philadelphia Housing Authority where Zipcar provides affordable convenient vehicles to residents enabling them to access personal and professional opportunities. A press release outlining that partnership has been submitted as part of my testimony today. Zipcar has operated in Philadelphia since 2007 and has become a vital part of the City's transportation ecosystem. Zipcar's model of car sharing has proven to be an important sustainable transportation option for an increasingly diverse cross-section of Philadelphians at every corner of the City and at every income level. According to our North American Transportation Survey, which we release annually to illustrate the social and environmental impact of Zipcar, we know that nearly 90 percent of our members in Philadelphia do not own a car. Nearly 50 percent of them have postponed buying or leasing a car because of their Zipcar membership and more than 40 percent of them would buy a car if Zipcar disappeared tomorrow. That's a lot of cars that we're helping keep off the road in Philadelphia. According to AAA, the cost of new car ownership was at an all-time high in 2023 and this estimate does not consider the cost of EV ownership and its specific requirements. Because of this, 60 percent of our members in Philadelphia report they joined Zipcar specifically to avoid the prohibitively high cost of car ownership. Zipcar is an affordable option because our membership includes gas, electric charging where applicable, insurance options, maintenance, roadside service and dedicated parking spot. Due to the cost and complexities of electric vehicles and many cities' goal of providing affordable, sustainable transportation for all, Zipcar believes that the future of EVs is shared, not owned. Independent studies also show that Zipcar's roundtrip model of car sharing has a positive impact on the environment and supports the City's carbon neutrality goals. For example, one Zipcar takes up to personally- 10 owned vehicles off the road. 11 In Philadelphia where we 12 personally have a fleet of about 13 300 vehicles at 140 locations, that's about 4,000 cars that we're keeping off City streets, enough cars to fill Dilworth Park six times over. Car-sharing members also have a lighter carbon footprint than noncar-sharers. Each member reduces their carbon footprint by up to 1600 pounds per year and each member tends to drive 40 percent fewer miles after joining Zipcar because they depend on a diverse mobility network for the transportation needs and only drive when actually necessary. Last year marked the beginning of a new chapter for Zipcar.
We further expanded our commitment to reducing carbon emissions by launching EVs across multiple markets, including Philadelphia. And we joined the White House EV Acceleration Challenge, committing to place 12 percent of our EV fleet in 13 overburdened communities and expand 14 our EV fleet to double its current 15 size in 2024. 16 A best practice we've 17 inquired from providing shared 18 electric vehicles is that 19 collaboration between the public 20 and private sector is going to be 21 critical to successfully meet and 22 expand sustainable transportation 23 goals. By working together and 24 tapping our broad and deep 25 experience, Zipcar and the City of Philadelphia and other public and private sector partners can help advance a historic and generational transition and ensure that we're paving the way for the future of sustainable transportation. Zipcar's excited to work with the City on innovative solutions to expand EV car sharing to increase the availability of charging infrastructure city-wide. A successful program Zipcar has launched in partnership with cities across the country is Zipcar for Government, a car-sharing program designed explicitly for City government employees. C. and other cities across the country, they're using Zipcar as a flexible fleet solution that allows city employees to drive EVs and hybrid vehicles to conduct important services, like building inspections and social work home visits. We found that programs like Electric Car Sharing for Governments allow cities to help reduce capital cost, electrify government transportation and promote sustainability. As a mission-driven company, Zipcar shares the City's goals of reducing carbon emissions and help provide innovative solutions to help the City become a national model that runs on affordable, convenient and sustainable transportation. To that end, we look forward to continuing to work with this Committee and the City Council to advance the City's carbon neutrality goals by expanding electric car sharing as an affordable and sustainable option throughout the City. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
Hello. My name is Jayr Arzu. I'm a Ph.D. student in city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Chair Thomas, esteemed members of the City Council and fellow citizens, it is truly an honor to share insights on a transformative transportation project that promises to significantly reduce carbon emissions in our beloved city, the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway project. The narrative of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway stretches back to 1913. With subsequent proposals in 1948, 1960, 1975, 1985, 1994 and most recently in 2003. Today propelled by federal and state grants, we stand on the cusp of realizing this visionary project through PennDOT's Route for Change program which was recently awarded $2 million to do NEPA studies. Anyway let's dive into the numbers. In 2003, the last time the Roosevelt Boulevard subway was scrutinized, it was forecast to save motorists and transit users a staggering 12,900 hours of travel time annually. Furthermore, the subway was projected to divert approximately 83,300 daily trips from automobiles to transit with an estimated ridership of 124,500 daily riders. While these figures may seem dated, I challenge everyone in this room to critically contemplate their collective implications. Expanding upon these benefits, implementing the Roosevelt Boulevard subway holds multi-faceted advantages for our region. First, reducing vehicle mass travel translates directly into a substantial decrease in carbon emissions aligning seamlessly with our city's climate neutrality goals. By providing a reliable alternative to private vehicles, we are not only mitigating environmental impact, but we're also paving the way for a greener, more sustainable urban future in the City of Brotherly Love. Moreover, the projected savings of 12,900 hours of travel time annually implies a significant enhancement in productivity and quality of life of our citizens. Time saved in commuting can be redirected toward more meaningful pursuits, spending time with your family, engaging in community activities or perhaps contributing to our local economy. In addition, the estimated diversion of 83,300 daily trips from automobiles to transit not only reduces traffic congestion but also addresses safety concerns on Roosevelt Boulevard, one of the most unsafe urban roads in the country. The Roosevelt Boulevard subway is not merely a transportation project. It's a catalyst for resiliency and a region for unprepared climate change. The Roosevelt Boulevard subway not only aligns with our city's climate neutrality goals, but also addresses the pressing concerns of overtly car-centric region and the safety challenges faced by pedestrians on Roosevelt Boulevard. In closing, let us collectively envision a future where our region's transportation infrastructure is environmentally conscious, enhances productivity and ensures the safety and well- being of our citizens. That starts here today with getting projects like the Roosevelt Boulevard subway completed. Thank you for having me and I look forward to further questions.
Thank you. I'm going to be very brief really quick. A couple of questions so please try to be brief in the answers. Does the City have any appetite right now for a shared Zipcar program? Have you spoke to anybody in the Admin about looking at using Zipcar or a model like Zipcar to be able to offset some of the things that we're doing around fleet and car usage right now currently?
We've had informal conversations with members of the Administration and members of City Council, and there was an RFP issued I believe two summers ago. I want to say 2022, but I believe it expired and it was never acted upon. We welcome the opportunity to re-engage in those discussions.
Sure. So I'm not making a push for Zipcar, I want to be clear, because folks from the Administration is here. But we do want to explore the concept of what it means to have a shared car program if that could put us in a position to further our agenda around less cars and carbon neutrality. So thank you for that. I'm like 98 percent in support of the Roosevelt Boulevard project as it relates to the subway going all the way up to the Northeast. I went to Frankford High School. I spent more time in the Northeast than probably most folks know. Let me give you 2 percent hesitation. Who's paying for it?
So for a project this large, we would have a federal package. So most of the funding for the Roosevelt Boulevard subway would come from CIG grants from the Federal Transit Administration. And for a project this big and because our region lacks large mega projects, we probably could get anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of a federal match for this project, so it would largely be through federal grant.
That's why I'm 98 percent there because I know the federal government isn't going to do 100 percent as far as paying for it. Who offsets the rest of that cost? Is it the state, is it the City or is it private sector?
So there's a few ways to do that, Chairman. Number one, we could have a situation where of course there's a partnership between the City and the Commonwealth, the state, or there's actually programs from the Federal Transit Administration, U.S. DOT like (inaudible) 49 where we can get low interest loans from the federal government. So there's multiple ways to have a federal aid package for the Roosevelt Boulevard subway. The important thing is actually getting it there and getting it shovel- ready, which we now have the ability to do because of the $2 million grant that we got about a week and a half ago. So -- oh, yeah, to elaborate on that, we got $2 million to do NEPA studies. So once PennDOT is able to move forward and choose a locally-preferred alternative, we'll be able to fully study that and send that to the federal government, the FTA, to move forward and talk about these funding packages.
Well, congratulations on that grant. Please push them to get us as many federal dollars as we can for that specific initiative. And whatever the federal government doesn't pay for, I will volunteer Harrisburg to come up with those dollars because, you know, things are a little tight for us on the City level. But in all honesty, I do commend you for the work you've done, you and your entire time. The level of dialogue that now exist around the idea of Roosevelt Boulevard extension for a subway is more prominent than I've ever heard and I think it starts with dialogue if we want to see something actualize itself. So I appreciate your advocacy as well as the other advocates who's been pushing for this specific initiative. And honestly, I'm joking but you know you guys have my support. I think it's a great idea. And whatever I can do on the City Council side, we want to push that as well as the shared car initiative to be able to put us in a position to save a little bit on the City side and do our part. Before I pass it to the Vice-Chair, I also just wanted to commend the efforts happening around Hillco. I think it's very important to encourage the type of development at Hillco that you're encouraging. But anybody in the listening audience or those who might watch this at a later time on YouTube, if you haven't seen that space, it is huge. The amount of land that we're talking about, I remember when the conversations first started and they said that this was like 2 percent of the entire city or something like that, don't quote me on that number, I like to have my facts, my staff does a good job with making sure we have facts, but it's a huge pot of land. And it is going to be an intrical part of the future for the City of Philadelphia. So thank you for your advocacy. To the other folks who testified, thank you for your advocacy as well as your expertise and your patience, because I know this has been a long dialogue. That's my monologue. I'll pass it to Vice-Chair Landau.
I just wanted to end by thanking all of you so much for your testimony. It was fantastic, especially the last panel, the previous panel. I feel like we've been talking about environmental justice, racial justice for so many years, and it was pockets of conversations around the City, but that it's all coming together now. And to hear the activism coming from the ground that includes the expertise, the technical expertise and then some of the techno-elect expertise that's also focused on our very few goals that we can all reach immediately going towards the future was super helpful to see. For those of us who are not in this field all the time, it's a little complicated, right. But making sure that we know the steps, making sure that we can see that home repair is climate action, making sure that we can see ending fossil fuels is climate action, and that every single day we can be taking steps to educate and do stuff on the ground that gets us towards these goals is super helpful. I don't want to wait until 2050. I want to make sure it happens before then and we're here right beside you trying to do the best we can. So please come to us and keep educating us, we need it. And we'll keep having hearings like this to give you an opportunity. So thank you so much, but our doors are always open. (Applause.)
That concludes public testimony on the bills today. We'll now move to public comment. If the Clerk's -- if the Sergeant-at-Arms can set that up. Ms. Bond, Mr. Ballenger, Connor D., Peter Ferch and Mitchell Chanin. If you'll come forward, we'll hear from you in that order. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Just so you're aware, as we've been here an hour and a half longer than we were supposed to, public comment today will be limited to two minutes per witness. Please confine your remarks to two minutes. We will cut you off after that.
Hi. My name is Linnea Bond. I'm a Philadelphia resident and the Health and Environmental Educator Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. The only thing I'll really add to Shawmar's excellent testimony is just a couple of things. Historically, our municipally-owned gas utility PGW has operated with minimum oversight which has led to overspending, fighting electrification at the state level and budgeting that invests in our city, our city and (inaudible) assets. I want to underscore what he said about legislation. I also would like to encourage both of you to -- I made a documentary in partnership with Hunting Park NAC and Sierra Club. It's a 20-minute documentary interviewing six women who went through the Built to Last program and I would recommend watching it. I'll send it to both of you after this. And I also want to highlight one thing that I don't think people commented on, which is that as we're moving toward our climate goals, we need to make sure that looking at MACH2, that it is not a backslide in our environmental work. There are few more ways to do hydrogen production wrong than right. And many powerful people financially invested in the proliferation of fossil fuel hydrogen and end-uses of hydrogen where electrification would be a more sufficient solution. So far the MACH2 Process has followed the fossil fuel playbook, keeping communities in the dark with the first and only scheduled meeting being held far away from the neighborhoods likely to be affected by this infrastructure during the workday. And that's all I'll add. Thank you.
Thank you for your testimony. I'm not going to comment on every public comment. But if you could get us a copy of the documentary --
Good afternoon, Chairperson Thomas and Vice-Chair Landau and members of the Legislative Oversight Committee who didn't stick around, but I hope that they will listen to what has happened here, there's a lot of great information. My name is Robert Ballenger. I'm an attorney at the Energy Unit at Community Legal Services. I represent families to ensure they have access to affordable heat, electricity and water in their homes. I also represent groups to try to advance energy affordability and I represent all PGW customers as public advocate in budget proceedings before the Gas Commission. I submitted written testimony in advance. I'm not going to really touch upon what's in there today, but just to help lift up some of what I've heard. We need to approach this racial justice issue of the energy transformation in a clear and equitable way. And we need to focus on efficiency and electrification for low-income and moderate-income families first to avoid what's known as the death spiral. We also have to reject the mindset that can paralyze us, and this is something that I've fallen into from time to time. We can't do it because it will make it unaffordable for poor people. We have to start there and embrace the fact that the home environment is part of our overall environment and we need to start by protecting it and investing in low-income housing. I was before the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee almost five years ago talking about PGW's diversification and nothing has happened. It's past time to act. The energy transformation is here. There are opportunities potentially in geothermal. And I would submit to you that there are future opportunities in demand response and distributed energy that the City should be exploring as a rule- making going on at the PUC. And finally, jobs. They are estimated 38.2 million jobs in renewable energy and as many as 139 million total jobs in the energy sector. I believe City Council should be acting here and I would just point out when the General Assembly passed the law that brought PGW under the PUC for rate- making, it didn't take away your legislative power to determine the mission of PGW and the steps necessary to fulfill it. And I would look forward to working you as I have with many people in this room on that, on that issue. And with that, I'll hand it off.
Thank you so much. Wonderful. So my name is Connor Descheemaker. Good afternoon now to Committee Chair Thomas, Vice-Chair Landau, members of the Committee on Legislative Oversight. I'm from Transit Forward Philadelphia. We're a coalition of over 30 Greater Philadelphia organizations, including labor unions, business associations, neighborhood groups and CDCs, senior disability rights advocates, immigrant refugee support groups and environmental and public policy MGOs. Our goal is to advocate for a safe, accessible and sustainable transit network and to amplify the voices of underrepresented riders and promote transit equity. Philadelphia's known as bedrock of American democracy and also the poorest big city in the country, a center of industry and port activity while playing host to numerous superfund sites, as has been mentioned in earlier testimonies today. With that history comes an unparalleled legacy of just building infrastructure. It's been here for a long time. And with that, we have a lot of choices that come up. One example of a choice that comes with that is approval in the last 10 years of a SEPTA natural gas plant near the center of Nicetown-Tioga, historically disinvested in a Black legacy neighborhood that doesn't have heavy rail infrastructure that stops in it but does have heavy rail infrastructure that passes through it. The strengths and weaknesses mean that we have lots to gain and lots at risk when considering how to pursue a future of carbon neutrality rooted in environmental justice. With transportation taking up 29 percent of U.S. carbon emissions in 2021, mode shift in public transportation play a prime role in helping Philadelphia meet its goals. With our city's high poverty and 30 percent of households without access to a car, that means that electrification and electric vehicles will not be the only means by which we achieve success here. By making transit easier for those dependent on it, we can attract new riders to the system and remove the incentive and at times imperative for lower middle-class residents to spend the thousands of dollars required annually to own and maintain a private car. This also reduces traffic congestion and emissions from idling cars as well as the wear and tear on our roads that is actually going to increase with heavier electric vehicles. Currently the City of Philadelphia provides one of the lowest local funding contributions for public transit, despite being among the top 6 transit systems in the United 7 States for generated revenue, we 8 provide less local support than 9 peer cities like Chicago, Seattle 10 and Phoenix. Increased local funding can make transit more effective for residents that depend on it whose livelihoods were drastically improved by being able to rely on transit. City-controlled solutions like bus-only lanes, signal prioritization, corner daylighting, well-lit shelters with seating, bus stop parking enforcement can help make the most of our existing resources. In particular, these policy changes will provide for faster, more dependable buses. The backbone of our transit system representing a vast majority of trips and riders. We've had catenary wires and other really incredibly tools in our trans system since Simon Memorial. We just continue on this path and move towards sustainability --
Hi. Good afternoon. I'm Peter Ferch, resident of Philadelphia. Part of POWER but speaking just for myself today. I first want to thank Councilmembers Landau and Thomas for pulling this together. This is great. My comments might be a little disorganized because I didn't prepare anything ahead of time. I wanted to listen to everything that had to be said and kind of pick some things to comment on. I think we got some really great testimony today. You guys got a lot of things to think about. I just want to kind of emphasize a couple of things. And one is that what has been achieved so far has been low-hanging fruit, right. It's been the easy stuff. We took credit for PECO converting from coal to gas, right. That really wasn't anything that we did, right. We benefited from that. Right now PECO has absolutely no plans for the next five years of changing their fuel mix and right now it's half a percent solar, right. So we're not going to get any benefit from changes from PECO. POWER, we are actually working with the PUC and with PECO to try to get them to up that. We welcome you to come to testify if you would like. But you had asked what can you do, and there's been a lot to talk about, PGW. Why is PGW in 2025, why do they have $20 million in their budget to build more pipelines? PGW should be legislated to stop selling gas. Why are they lobbying the Parks Department to get off the steam loop and put natural gas burners in the Parks Department? That should stop. You guys I think have the power to tell PGW or certainly the members of the Gas Commission with which one City Councilperson has not even been named is missing, could tell PGW to stop selling more gas. We could legislate no gas in new buildings. The Temple professor mentioned that million 20 tons I think it was of greenhouse gases are emitted by Philadelphia. PGW is responsible for 5 million of those tons. A lot of that gets represented by buildings. A lot of buildings are burning natural gas so it comes out in theirs, but PGW is responsible for that product as being sold that's causing that. Ban gas in new buildings. Require green building materials. We talked about the cost of -- again, the professor talked electric art steel versus coke steel. Require green materials in new buildings. The City could buy green energy. Again, PECO's standard energy has half a percent of solar in it. You guys can legislate more protective bike lanes. You can take care or deal with the parking in the bike lanes. Lots of people would ride bikes except people think it's just too dangerous, right. Obviously -- oh, you can provide the funding that the Sustainability Department and the Energy Authority require. I thought the Energy Authority did an outstanding job of very clearly talking about what needs to be done. And again, what we've done is the low-hanging fruit. It's going to be harder. It's going to get more expensive. If you look at the numbers that they talked about, 1300 houses with heat pumps over the last five years or something, we've got five more sets of that before, right, so that's five times 1300. That's not anywhere near being on target to reach our goals. Same with the 27 homes with over seven years with solar panels on them. Four times that is about 10,000 homes with solar panels by 2050. I don't think we're on target, right. I think we have a lot of work to do. Anyway enough. Thank you very much for your time.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to testify. My name's Mitch Chanin. I'm a member of both the Philly Thrive and POWER Interfaith, also Reclaim Philly and a bunch of other groups around the City. I know everyone wants to go home. I will be brief. I didn't prepare, but I wanted to just share a few comments after hearing what was shared today. I fully support the testimony from POWER and Philly Thrive and pretty much everything that's been said today. I wanted to just emphasize a couple of things that maybe didn't get quite enough attention. One is that I think instead of thinking about goals or targets, we should be thinking about deadlines. 2050 could be a deadline and City departments and agencies and public entities could be required to meet the deadline. I agree that 2050 is too far in the future and the deadline should be sooner. But at a minimum, I think we should be doing something to require compliance with a deadline. Through POWER Interfaith I've been participating in our interventions in the review of PGW's budget and their rate case when they ask for a percent rate 7 hike from the Public Utility 8 Commission. Something that became 9 really clear is that though the Gas 10 Commission reviews PGW's budgets in order to basically make sure they're not wasting money and protect ratepayer interest, they don't have any statutory mandate to require PGW to comply with the City's climate goals. So the City has this 2050 target, but there's no law of any kind that I'm aware of that requires anyone to do anything to comply with the 2050 target, including the very large fossil fuel utility that the City literally owns. They are planning according to an independent analysis that we helped with a little bit, they're on track to spend upwards of $8 billion on gas infrastructure over the next 30 years or so, which would be designed to last for 50 years or more beyond that, even though we say we're not going to be using fossil fuels after 2050. So we need every single dollar we can muster to transition to clean renewal energy in a way that is reducing poverty, making sure everyone can afford their energy bills and improving public health. $8 billion could go a long way if it were spent on the things we actually need and not fossil fuel infrastructure. And PGW management executives have totally refused to engage in meaningful dialogue. Last year in a case before the Gas Commission we asked them to require a single stakeholder meeting about non-pipeline alternatives that could achieve those goals rather than $8 billion on fossil fuel infrastructure. They said no, PGW didn't want to do it and the Gas Commission declined to mandate that. So I think we really need legislation that changes this framework for PGW. (Applause.)
That's my two minutes. I will leave it there. Thank you very much.
I do want to say thank you to all of the people who stayed for public comment and listened to the entire hearing. You truly care deeply about this issue and about our city. Vice-Chair, do you have any final remarks?
Well, let's do this because I can't do it that way, how about you come up, say your name for the record, ask your question and let us answer your question on the record. (Witness approached Witness table.)
My question is that I am both a member of the Sierra Club, the Program Manager for Philadelphia Climate Works and the Sierra Club of Pennsylvania is also a proud member of Here For Climate Justice Coalition, which stands for Housing, Equity Repair and Electrification for Climate Justice. A number of the (inaudible) that already spoke today are also part of that coalition. And as a member of HERE 4 Climate Justice, I want to echo what so many others have said around the need to allocate $5 billion in the budget for the Built to Last program. This program, as many have already named, would allow for more long-term residents to stay in their homes while also addressing energy efficiency and expensive public utility bills for low-income residents. Mr. Thomas, one of the things that you were asking early on, Councilman Thomas, was for examples of what people are doing in other places that this city should be considering. When we put together our testimony, we put together a bunch of examples and links to those examples as well as some things that we think that the City should be doing. Some --
What you can do is you can submit your testimony for the record.
We will collect all that information and we'll consider it. And what I also suggest is the next time we have this hearing, that we include you and your organization in the --
Yeah. I would just say my question was we weren't entirely clear about how to submit testimony, and some of the things included a bunch of links. So we would love to have the Councilmembers get it if there was any way to do it.
So we'll do -- my Chief Clerk is behind me for this hearing --
-- Dave Maynard. You can have a conversation with him when we adjourn the hearing to be able to give us the testimony for today's conversation. But I mean, clearly you've been here the whole time. You can tell by the energy of the Councilmembers as well as some of advocates that are here today that this is probably going to be a series of conversations, right.
We are serious. I got a whole list of people that we're going to invite the next time we do this, so PGW is clearly at the top of that list. PECO, Schools -- I don't know where I put it. I don't want to start naming and miss --
-- people. But based on today's testimony, the Navy Yard, we're going to have the School District. We're going to have a list of people that we invite to be a part of this conversation as we move forward, and we need to do it in phases because we have these subsectors of government. We're going to have these organizations and community advocates. And clearly, based on today's conversation it's a huge appetite for it. So I can assure you that this is just the beginning. We're going to continue to push this issue to the Legislative Oversight Committee, both myself as the Chair as well as the Vice-Chair. We have a huge appetite to really try to put a dent in this problem, and we want you all to be a part of the conversation because you're the advocate. So get us the information --
Awesome. Deeply, deeply appreciate you and that appetite. I think all of us are here because we have that appetite also.
Let me say thank you to the Council staff as well too. This is a much longer hearing than what we anticipated, so thank you, Lopez, to the entire team, Sergeant-At-Arms, our Clerk. Everybody involved, thank you all. I know this was a much longer hearing than we were supposed to have. We definitely appreciate your patience and your commitment and service to the City of Philadelphia. There being no further questions from members of the Committee or no witnesses to testify, I will ask if there is anyone present whose name I haven't called would you speak up now? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to say thank you to all the panels of witnesses for their participation today. Of course, we value your opinions. And this concludes the business of the Committee. We are now in recess to the call of the Chair. And I can assure you this conversation will continue. Thank you everybody. And thank you, Vice-Chair Landau. And congratulations on your first hearing.
Thank you. (Committee on Legislative Oversight concluded at 2:41 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL