Josh Freed and Jackie Toth: What Biden gets right about energy in Pa.

Pennsylvania has always been an energy state. In fact, it ranks third in power production nationwide. It’s the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer and generates the second-most carbon-free nuclear power in the country.

The state’s nuclear energy is a clean energy asset for Pennsylvanians. Unfortunately, the largesse of its other, fossil-fueled power comes at a cost: Pennsylvania releases the fifth-most carbon dioxide in the nation. We know that increased carbon in the atmosphere is heightening the effects of climate change, which we’re seeing in Western wildfires and in hurricanes and tropical storms that in recent years have often made it up to Pennsylvania. This is why the country and the rest of the world is shifting to clean energy that doesn’t worsen climate change. Whether the Keystone State prepares for and embraces this shift will have big implications for Pennsylvania jobs and well-being.

As the 2020 election season heads into the final stretch, Pennsylvania is set to play a lead role in determining whether President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden emerges as victor. The two could not be more opposite when it comes to matters of energy, climate and our future.

This summer, Biden outlined his plan to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050 and spend $2 trillion to create the technologies and jobs to get it done. Part of his proposal is a goal to add an estimated 10 million good-paying clean energy jobs to the economy, with the choice to join a union.

Trump is trying to paint Biden as out-of-touch with Pennsylvanian workers, but this flies in the face of Biden’s Scranton roots and long record that shows he understands how important energy is for Pennsylvania.

For one thing, Biden supports keeping the clean, emission-free power produced by existing nuclear plants, including the ones in Pennsylvania, such as the Beaver Valley plant in Shippingport. He also supports innovating new, U.S.-made advanced nuclear technologies that could not only cleanly power our homes, but also generate the high heat needed to manufacture many goods.

He knows that natural gas remains important to many Pennsylvania families, especially union households. But he also wants to make sure that any fracking is done as safely and cleanly as possible. That’s why he’s made clear his position on fracking: protection for our nation’s public lands from new fracking, but no ban on the practice on private lands, where almost all Pennsylvania fracking takes place. He wants to support sustainable union jobs in this industry while making the gas production process safer and cleaner for workers and nearby communities — something even the industry should support.

The problem is that emissions of methane — the primary component of natural gas — are really bad for the climate, trapping more than 80 times more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the next 20 years alone. So Biden supports strengthening the regulations that Trump has weakened on both intentional and unintentional methane leaks. Reducing methane leaks not only protects the air quality and the environment, but also prevents the wasteful loss of gas resources.

This is a platform that Pennsylvanians can get behind. State residents are split almost down the middle on fracking: In a CBS News poll from August, 52% of registered voters in the state opposed it, while 48% favored it. Both Franklin & Marshall College and Muhlenberg College/Morning Call have found that pluralities of Pennsylvanians think natural gas drilling poses a major health risk and that fracking’s environmental risks outweigh its economic benefits. The kind of improvements to safety and emissions reduction Biden wants to require of gas drilling are critical to ensuring it’s done safely.

Biden also knows that there’s job-creation potential in technologies that capture, store, or use carbon states like Pennsylvania are already producing. These technologies will benefit both the climate and our country’s ability to stay competitive and keep building.

In nearby New Jersey, for example, the company Solidia runs a carbon utilization project to mix carbon dioxide with cement to make stronger concrete that can also store carbon and reduce climate pollution. Biden plans to invest in carbon capture technologies like this to help states across the country, including Pennsylvania, make something out of their emissions.

What Biden is saying is that despite the very serious threat that the changing climate poses, states don’t have to sacrifice to build a thriving clean energy economy. Working toward net-zero emissions by 2050 is an opportunity to create new, union jobs in energy and related infrastructure.

Biden has a vision for a clean energy future for Pennsylvania that respects the state’s energy history and charts a path for Pennsylvanians to be successful and healthy for decades to come.

Josh Freed is senior vice president for the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank. Jackie Toth is a Pennsylvania native and an adviser for policy and content at Third Way.