Letter to the editor: Wolf's climate plans must be followed by action

Gov. Tom Wolf continues to move apace on climate change: Pennsylvania’s Climate Action Plan was released last month, and the governor also made Pennsylvania a member of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a 24-state compact committed to the climate goals of the Paris agreement.

These are exactly the signals we need, but they have to be translated into concrete actions that will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, specifically methane and carbon emissions.

It is estimated that Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry emits a whopping 520,000 tons of methane, a potent climate-forcing agent, per year. The state’s draft rules to address industry air pollution must be revised to directly regulate methane if we are to meet our climate targets.

Similarly, the electric power sector emitted 82 million metric tons of carbon in 2016. A binding, declining limit on carbon emissions is a tangible step toward curbing a long-lived greenhouse gas that is warming our planet at an unsustainable rate.

We applaud Wolf for listening to the more than two-thirds of Pennsylvanians who want climate action now. His measures will serve to protect Pennsylvania families and future generations, but only if they are followed by meaningful, enforceable actions.

Steve Hvozdovich

Downtown

The writer is Pennsylvania campaigns director for Clean Water Action (www.cleanwateraction.org).