We know that the next four years are going to be difficult ones for the environment in Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump campaigned on a platform that denied climate change and promised massive giveaways to oil and gas companies and other major polluters.
In Washington, we’re going to have to fight to preserve the historic investments in clean energy that are critical to averting a climate disaster — and that are already bringing in hundreds of millions of federal dollars to Pennsylvania annually, creating union jobs while boosting local economies.
With the Trump administration expected to take a big step back on the environment, it’s even more important that Pennsylvania take major steps forward in building a clean energy economy while working to protect our clean air and drinking water.
Pennsylvania’s election results represent one of the bright spots, nationally, for the environment movement.
At the state level, voters returned a pro-environment majority to the state House of Representatives and kept the same number of pro-environment seats in the state Senate.
Many of these winning candidates ran on a strong pro-environment platform, pointing to investments in clean energy and clean air and water that are also creating local jobs.
We believe that this message, which connects state policies that can seem abstract to concrete benefits in local communities, was key to our success.
And we were encouraged by the deep wells of support we found for the environment in conversations with voters across key swing districts, investing more than $2 million this cycle in door knocking, advertising and outreach to educate voters about the important issues at play.
READ: New Study Finds That Pennsylvanians Overwhelmingly Support Stricter Regulations on Fracking
Yet because Washington will be in the hands of a MAGA majority, we have to be prepared to protect all of the gains we have made over the past four years under the Biden administration.
At the top of the list is the Inflation Reduction Act, which has made transformational investments in clean energy, creating union jobs and bringing hundreds of millions of dollars of federal investments into communities across our commonwealth.
Our state legislature is just beginning to unlock the power of the Inflation Reduction Act by considering legislation, like the recently passed Solar for Schools, that channels federal investments to lower costs for Pennsylvania businesses and working families while creating union jobs.
In the months to come, we’re going to need to demonstrate to our congressional delegation that investing in Pennsylvania’s future economic growth isn’t a partisan political issue — it’s a common-sense approach that positions us to compete for the energy jobs of the future.
And to do that, we need a bipartisan coalition in Harrisburg committed to fully leveraging these historic investments.
At the same time, it has become more important than ever for Pennsylvania to stake out its own clean energy priorities. With Trump expected to roll back federal climate initiatives, it’s up to states like Pennsylvania to step up.
Earlier this year, Governor Shapiro laid out a strategy to get our commonwealth to 35% renewable energy by 2035. We need to continue to push through common sense policies, like this, to ensure that Pennsylvania is prepared to compete economically on the world stage regardless of what Washington does.
READ: Pennsylvania Lawmakers Must Make Environmental Justice a Top Priority
And because the Trump administration is expected to try to roll back federal rules designed to protect our clean air and drinking water, Pennsylvania’s environmental regulators must step up and fill in the gaps to protect the health and safety of our families.
Governor Shapiro and our state legislature can – and must – act as a bulwark against any Trump-era rollbacks by strengthening enforcement of our existing environmental laws even as they work to enact new policies that make our state a leader in environmental protection.
The next four years will be difficult. But our resolve is undaunted.
We know that our statewide pro-environment movement, which powered so many environmental champions to Harrisburg, will continue to fight to ensure that every Pennsylvanian can live in a commonwealth with clean water, clean drinking water and clean energy.
