West Newton mayor signs clean energy pledge

West Newton’s mayor has endorsed an environmental organization’s goal of getting her community 100 percent powered by clean and renewable energy for heating, lighting and transportation.

Mary Popovich recently signed a pledge from the Sierra Club to get the Youghiogheny River town powered by clean and renewable energy — solar, wind, geothermal and small-scale hydro electric power — by 2040, said Kelsey Salerno, a community organizer for the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign in Western Pennsylvania.

Popovich, who has been the borough’s mayor since 2009, could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but said in a statement from the Sierra Club that she believes “local government officials must pave the way for the next generation and try to preserve and utilize the natural resources we have.”

Popovich is the first mayor in Westmoreland County to sign the pledge, Salerno said.

West Newton Borough Council did not take a vote on joining Popovich in making the pledge toward using only clean energy in the town in 21 years, said Pamela Humenik, borough secretary.

Popovich, who lost in her 2018 bid to Justin Walsh for the seat representing the 58th District in the state House, joins more than 200 mayors across the country who support Mayors for 100% Clean Energy, an initiative of the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign, the organization said.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto announced in June 2017 his support for a goal of powering Pittsburgh entirely with clean and renewable energy by 2035. His statement came after President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement.

The mayors of Bellevue, Sharpsburg and Millvale also have endorsed the goal of getting their communities powered 100% by clean and renewable energy.

West Newton, which has a population of about 2,500, is about about a mile upstream of what was once Republic Steel Corp’s Banning Mine in Buddtown. Republic Steel closed the mine in the 1980s, but a large coal refuse pile remains, turning stormwater from the mine the color orange as it lies along that section of the Great Allegheny Passage.

Salerno said she was not certain of the cost of getting the town to rely upon clean energy, nor how it could be implemented.

Joanne Hall of West Newton, a Westmoreland Ready for 100 volunteer leader, said the borough’s economic future “depends on our trail visitors enjoying a healthy river, clean air and a community that believes that preserving the environment and creating jobs go hand in hand.”

Popovich, who was a coal miner in the 1970s, said that plans must be put in place so that training is available to miners to get new jobs and earn a respectable wage.

“Wouldn’t it be a wonderful vision to build solar plants on abandoned mining or steel mill sites?” Popovich said.