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Council Wins:
Solar Project to Reclaim 2,000 Acres of Toxic Mineland
“Approval of the Black Moshannon Solar project is a victory for the people of Rush Township, a victory for clean energy, and a victory for a sustainable economy,” stated Tom Pike, Clean Air Council Director of Campaigns. “This is the kind of forward-thinking work that communities across the Commonwealth should be looking to replicate.”
FROM THE BLOG
Clean Air Council Appeals Air Pollution Permit for Nation’s Largest Proposed Fracked Gas Power Plant
The Homer City Redevelopment project would be the nation’s largest fracked gas power plant to open in Pennsylvania. This plant is being built to power a 3,200-acre AI data center campus, even though a plant this size could produce enough electricity to power over three million PA homes. The Notice of Appeal was filed with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board challenging errors in the plan approval.
Feet First Philly Awards 16 Public Space Enhancement Projects to Improve Communities Across Philadelphia
After receiving over 70 applications for the Public Space Enhancement Program, a selection committee selected the 16 projects to be awarded funding to improve walkability in neighborhoods across Philadelphia. All of the funded organizations and their projects are located in communities that have experienced a lack of historical investment, or even active disinvestment in their public spaces.
Gifts from supporters like you are the most important dollars we receive because they allow us to respond quickly to urgent issues as they emerge rather than waiting for traditional grant funding.
MEMBER Q&A
Clean Air Council is so effective because our staff is a team of experts in their field and our members are so passionate about the environment. We wanted to share the expertise of our team by inviting members to ask about environmental issues they care about most. Below are just a few of the questions we received from dedicated members, like you.
Q: Does Clean Air Council do local air monitoring and do you have any takeaways from the Purple Air data? – Alex S, member since 2026 and Eunice A, member since 1988
A: Yes, the Council operates a network of around 60 PurpleAir brand particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) monitors in the Philadelphia region. You can view the entire network at here. We saw higher air pollution readings than local governmental monitors at times, due to capturing hyperlocal air pollution events. The data is clearly demonstrating that more local air monitoring is needed to keep communities safe from pollution.
– Russell Zerbo, Clean Air Council Advocate since 2012
Q: With the IRA gutted, what other resources are available to help residents wanting to switch to renewable options or Electric Vehicles? – Molly W, member since 2023
A: At the state level, all large electric utility companies offer energy efficient rebate and incentive programs under Pennsylvania’s flagship energy efficiency law, Act 129. These programs differ, but PECO, for example, offers a rebate for installing rooftop solar. Electric utility companies may pay customers with solar panels for the excess electricity generated (known as “net metering”) but check with your utility company to see what’s available to you.
– Alice Lu, Clean Air Council Policy Analyst since 2023
Q: Are there ways that we can, by negotiations, force the data centers to use renewable energy / help communities develop renewable energy? – Ann J, member since 2026
A: Data centers are being proposed at lightning speed, but we’re working with state lawmakers to prioritize bills that offer protections for residents and the environment. Local governments can also adopt zoning ordinances, which determine how land is used. Data center ordinances can spell out water usage standards, noise limits, setback requirements, and requirements for energy usage.
– Alice Lu, Clean Air Council Policy Analyst since 2023
Q: What is the current status of the role of the PM2.5 particles released into the air by burning organic substances? – Merv K, member and volunteer since 2008
A: In a regulatory sense, almost all counties in PA meet the 2012 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5. In 2024, the EPA finalized a stricter standard based on rigorously vetted health data, however, the current administration asked the court to revert back to the old standard. It also failed to identify which areas do not meet the new standard, a necessary step to trigger air quality improvement measures. Clean Air Council and other groups are fighting to ensure that EPA retains and enforces the new standard. Specific regulations regarding burning organic waste are usually local.
– Nathan Johnson, Clean Air Council Engineer since 2017
Q: How can we streamline the permitting process for solar energy in PA to make it the cheapest, fastest, cleanest way to generate electricity? – Madeline D, member since 2023
A: There are several permitting barriers for large-scale solar in PA. For one, the interconnection authority PJM needs to expedite and solve its ‘queue’ approach that delays every solar project 5-7 years. The legislature also needs to create a centralized siting standard for solar farms because local zoning ordinances often take the form of de facto bans on solar. Finally, solar developers could do a better job of working with residents to offer comprehensive community benefits and reduce local opposition.
– Tom Pike, Clean Air Council Director of Campaigns since 2025
IN THE NEWS |
THE GUARDIAN
US leads record global surge in gas-fired power driven by AI demands, with big costs for the climate
“The coal plant was an environmental monstrosity, but it was a pillar of the local economy and some people are nostalgic for that,” said Clean Air Council Director of Campaigns Tom Pike, and continued with “But no one wants to live next to a datacenter.
Car centric road design requires a tremendous amount of parking, but what if this public space was used for something else? Each year in cities across the world, people come together to reimagine street parking into safe and inviting pedestrian spaces. The Council and its pedestrian advocacy group Feet First Philly are long time participants in this international celebration, and this year the Council’s team turned a parking space on the 1800 block of Chestnut St. into a temporary parklet where people walking by could try their hand at redesigning a city street with an interactive game. Check out these photos from our parklet in Center City, Philadelphia.
Learn how you can get a permanent parklet in your Philly neighborhood with this Feet First Philly Infographic, or contact Titania Markland, Transportation Outreach Coordinator to learn more about parklets and PARK(ing) Day at tmarkland@cleanair.org.
Philadelphia, PA (January 31, 2022)
This project/program was funded (in part) by the Pa. Department of Health’s Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant.
Feet First Philly is Philadelphia’s only pedestrian advocacy group. The group is sponsored by Clean Air Council. For the second consecutive year, the Council and Feet First Philly partnered with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to provide funding for neighborhoods to improve walkability in their communities. The projects awarded are located throughout Philadelphia and all seek to enhance public spaces.
This mini-grant program was created to allow community groups, residents, and even local businesses to become active in improving public spaces, by using community-led designs to improve safety and beauty. This program demonstrates ways in which a small amount of funding can have a big impact on neighborhoods when residents lead the effort. A historic lack of investment in public spaces in Philadelphia’s communities of color is a chronic problem, this mini-grant program prioritizes those neighborhoods that have historically been overlooked.
In the first year of the mini-grant program, Feet First Philly funded seven amazing projects. This year, over 60 residents, businesses, and community organizations submitted applications. Thanks to the city funds which were supplemented by our generous donors, the program will be able to support a total of nine mini-grants this year.
The projects selected will implement unique strategies to address different barriers to public spaces in their neighborhood. Feet First Philly recently announced the first 5 projects and will announce the additional four winners in the near future.
Cobbs Creek Ambassadors will expand its efforts in cleaning up the Cobbs Creek Trail. This year, the group “aims to establish a Trash, Trees, and Trails (T³) mission, a more holistic approach to engaging neighbors in the park’s revitalization.”
Norris Square Neighborhood will install community bulletin boards in front of two of their garden spaces to provide various information to neighborhood residents and create more welcoming spaces for neighbors to enjoy.
Southwest Community Development Corporation will create an outdoor space for community members to access and engage in various activities. This space will act as a pocket park for the neighborhood.
ACHIEVEability will increase safety, cleanliness, and neighborhood pride by beautifying the 60th Street Commercial Corridor between Arch and Chestnut Streets.
Hansberry Garden and Nature Center will enhance a meadow as a local walking destination with a welcome sign, seating area, and other amenities.
The additional four awardees will be announced soon. Follow Feet First Philly on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates on the additional projects!
For more information contact Titania Markland, Transportation Outreach Coordinator, tmarkland@cleanair.org.
July, 5, 2021 – Communities identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Environmental Justice communities are more likely to experience issues that negatively impact pedestrian safety and result in higher rates of pedestrian fatalities from traffic crashes. According to PennDot, fatal or serious injuries from crashes are three times more likely to occur in low income communities and 30% more likely to occur in communities of color. These communities face real challenges to pedestrian safety including poor sidewalk conditions, lack of access to green space, and under funding for maintenance and safety enhancements.
Sidewalks are the foundation for walkability, and sidewalk condition is a major factor in deciding how people travel. Philadelphia has hundreds of miles of sidewalks in poor condition, with no concrete plan to fix them. The Council and its volunteer pedestrian advocacy group Feet First Philly work to improve the pedestrian environment in every neighborhood, protect the rights of pedestrians, and encourage walking as a mode of transportation, exercise, and recreation through public education, outreach, advocacy, and technical assistance to communities.
In 2020, Feet First Philly launched a sidewalk campaign to fund sidewalks like streets. Currently, homeowners are responsible for costly sidewalk repairs, which forms a barrier and liability for many residents who cannot afford to fix damaged sidewalks. Feet First Philly’s sidewalks campaign asks the city to set aside $500,000 to hire a full time sidewalks coordinator, conduct a sidewalk master plan, and create sidewalk repair funding strategy, as recommended by a 2018 Sidewalk Policy Transportation Community Development Initiative (TCDI) to the Office of Transportation & Infrastructure Systems.
Feet First Philly and the Council advocated for the sidewalk campaign through an op-ed in the Inquirer calling for the city to take action, by meeting with Councilmembers in preparation for budget season, and sending an action alert urging Mayor Kenney and City Council to fund sidewalks in the next budget. This spring, the Council and Feet First Philly joined 24 organizations advocating for Livable Communities budget requests, including dedicated funding for Vision Zero, transit, and sidewalks.
In addition to this budget campaign, the Feet First Philly Pedestrian Advocacy Guide connects people to city agencies and helps them navigate services to address safety concerns. Feet First Philly also developed two walk audit tools to engage residents, neighborhood leaders, students, and stakeholders to identify risks to pedestrians and connect residents to resources that can address these concerns.
Highway design that prioritizes vehicle speed over pedestrian safety is a legacy issue that disproportionately affects communities of color in Philadelphia. Pedestrians accounted for just 7% of people involved in crashes from 2014 to 2018, but made up 40% of people killed in crashes during this period. Highly trafficked roads like Cobbs Creek Parkway make up the High Injury Network, the 12% of all Philadelphia roads that claim 50% of all traffic deaths and severe injuries.
For the past two years, the Council has connected residents, stakeholders, elected officials, and city agencies to work together to address the largest hurdle to accessing Cobbs Creek Park and Trail, which is the dangerous Cobbs Creek Parkway. The Parkway is a physical and mental hurdle for residents trying to access the park and connected trails and dangerous speeds, reckless driving, and lack of safe crossings are barriers that make the park and trail difficult and dangerous to visit. Tragically, the lives of three people were taken along the Parkway in the past year.
The Council partnered with Cobbs Creek residents to address their concerns and demand change. This resulted in the installation of speed hump and delineator posts. The Council continues to advocate for safety upgrades, and the City recently applied for funding to install new state of the art pedestrian crossings along Cobbs Creek Parkway. These would fill crossing gaps that stretch more than a mile and a half long and increase accessibility to this important trail and greenspace in one of the most dense areas of the city.
For more information contact Will Fraser, Transportation Project Manager, wfraser@cleanair.org
July 7, 2021 – The City of Philadelphia was one of the country’s first industrial hubs. While much of its large polluting industry has diminished over the years –there are some facilities that still emit toxic air emissions that impact public health and the environment. Generally federal, state and local governments have done a poor job of protecting public health from hazardous emissions that can cause cancer and other serious health problems. Yet we must come to grips with this most serious type of public health threat from air pollution. This is particularly true of communities that live in deep poverty and already suffer from poorer public health outcomes. The city of Philadelphia has more people living in deep poverty than any other large city in the United States.
Regulating toxic air pollution has proven to be particularly difficult to regulate since there is often no absolute safe level for an air pollutant that causes cancer or neurological damage. The only 100% safe solution would be to shut down all sources of toxic pollution from large factories, smaller industries such as dry cleaners and gas stations, and cars and trucks. Often the regulations of toxic air emissions are not based on the actual health threat but rather on what technology exists to lower emissions while still allowing the industry to operate.
The Council has long advocated that the city develop regulations to limit emissions of toxics based on public health impacts. The state and federal government should also. In Philadelphia air regulations are adopted by the city’s Air Pollution Control Board. (APCB). Air Management Services (AMS), a part of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health drafts the proposed regulations with input from city lawyers for review and adoption by the APCB.
In 2019, working with the APCB and groups like Clean Air Council, AMS announced that it would amend and strengthen its Air Management Regulation VI (AMR6) which regulated air toxics.
The proposed amended regulation would call for all new Title V (major source) permits and renewals to go through a risk screening process. If the risk from a particular pollutant went above a certain threshold it would trigger a risk assessment and the facility would have to show that it can lower its emissions and reduce harms to the impacted community in order to continue to operate in the City. If the facility could not properly do this, it would be denied its operating permit. It was a game changer. It is difficult for the city to adopt stronger regulations than the state or federal government for fear of making its businesses anti competitive. But both AMS and the APCB were interested in looking at this new approach to reducing air pollution risk in the City.
The Council has been actively pushing for such an approach to toxic pollution for many years. The proposal to amend AMR6 comes on the heels of New Jersey’s recent adoption of a similar law in late 2020. Pennsylvania should follow suit. This law requires that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to assess the public health and environmental risks that facilities renewing or amending licensing permits create for overburdened communities (low-income communities, communities of color, or communities with limited English proficiency).
The Council is pleased that Philadelphia is moving to better regulate the threat from toxic air pollution but is urging it to go further than what is proposed. The Council has urged the APCB and AMS to take up this opportunity to further decrease the risk thresholds and to look at the aggregate risk posed by multiple pollutants and multiple facilities so that it is more protective for the City’s residents, especially the most vulnerable — its children, elderly, and those with preexisting conditions.
The APCB has an opportunity to pass a regulation more protective than that of New Jersey and set a standard for Pennsylvania and large cities to follow.
For more information contact John Lee, Public Health Director, jlee@cleanair.org.
Along the Delaware River in the southern part of Delaware County refineries and incinerators have been poisoning the air for decades, negatively impacting residents’ health and quality of life.
On Saturday, June 26, residents of Chester, Marcus Hook, and surrounding Delaware County communities welcomed participants of the “Walk for Our Grandchildren” into their neighborhoods to draw attention to local environmental justice and public health issues. The Walk for Our Grandchildren included several dozen grandparents walking from Scranton, PA to Wilmington, DE over the course of a week to highlight the impact of the fossil fuel industry on local communities, and to call on the Biden administration to take stronger actions to address climate change.
Members of the Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) group greeted the walkers at the gate to the polluting Covanta waste incinerator in Chester. There, community leaders from Chester shared their personal stories, including being forced to abandon their homes adjacent to the facility, the persistent noxious odors, and high rates of asthma, particularly among children. CRCQL leader Zulene Mayfield, who has been fighting environmental injustice in Chester for decades, shared the history of how the toxic Covanta facility was deliberately placed in Chester, a predominantly Black community.
“We welcome the support of the Walk for Our Grandchildren to highlight the issues that we have been facing here in Chester for years,” Zulene Mayfield stated, “The toxic Covanta incinerator is one of the most egregious examples of environmental racism in the country, and we call upon the Delaware County Council to end its contract with Covanta so that our children and families can breathe.”
The grandparents then traveled to Marcus Hook municipal park overlooking the Delaware River, where they had a clear view of the INEOS ships transporting ethane from the processing plant in Marcus Hook to Europe to be manufactured into single-use plastics.
Members of Marcus Hook, Trainer, and Chichester Residents for Public Health spoke to the many impacts to public health and safety that have resulted from the Sunoco / Energy Transfer Mariner East pipelines and the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex. Residents expressed a need for more information, education, and community wide awareness of the links between pollution and health impacts.
“Our fight in Marcus Hook is to make residents aware of the health issues and what they can do about them,” said local resident Lorraine Daliessio, “We have an Environmental Advisory Council made up of both residents and refinery representatives but many residents are not aware of the part they can play, or even that the EAC exists. We need awareness.”
Residents in both Chester and Marcus Hook, as well as surrounding communities such as Trainer and Upper and Lower Chichester bear the brunt of the pollution impacts from the refineries and incinerators along the Delaware River in the southern part of the County. In all of these communities, residents are holding out hope that the newly formed Delaware County Health Department will help to analyze the impacts of pollution on public health in these communities, and that change may finally come after decades of injustice and harm. The Clean Air Council has been supporting these community organizing efforts through our outreach, advocacy, and legal work.
Eve Miari, Advocacy Coordinator for Clean Air Council, added, “Residents in communities impacted by toxic air pollution are coming together and saying loudly and clearly, we have had enough. Enough environmental injustice, enough environmental racism, enough prioritization of private profit over public health. We have a right to clean air, pure water, and a healthy environment. We have the right to breathe.”
For more information contact Eve Miari, Advocacy Coordinator, emiari@cleanair.org
As I remember it — The Start of the Clean Air Council
I’ve been a Clean Air Council member since the nonprofit first began to fight for everyone’s right to breathe clean air. On a steamy late August day in the summer of 1967, I arrived at the University of Pennsylvania to start my graduate degree program in “Operations Research”. I had been accepted as a dorm proctor in the Upper Class Triangle Dorms at 37th and Spruce Streets and assigned a single dorm on the second floor, which had a screened window that looked out the back to a walkway. I had bought an Inquirer newspaper at a coin newspaper box and dropped the paper on the window sill, which was open to allow for a breeze.
After unpacking and traveling around campus to run my many errands, I returned late that afternoon exhausted and ready to eat my hoagie and read the Inky. I picked up the paper on the window sill and was astonished to see the black newsprint on the front page slide right off the page! This illusion was caused by a layer of fine black soot, likely air particulate matter, in the air that deposited through the window screen over roughly 5 hours and landed on the newspaper. I was astounded and concerned that I had been breathing this same air all day!
Black soot and fine particulate matter is a public health problem that kills millions of people each year. As someone concerned about air quality and the environment, I was a regular contributor and member of the American Lung Association. I learned they had initiated another independent health group to promote clean air. The group would work to fight air pollution in the Philadelphia area. This was before the first Earth Day and before national legislation such as the Clean Air Act was passed.
They invited the public to attend the first meeting. Given my concern for the sooty air I was breathing since moving into the city, I made it a point to be at this meeting.
The meeting had about 25 attendees. The meeting chair was from the Lung Association of Chester County. The Chair specifically noted they were not turning on the overhead fluorescent lights and only using the ambient light from the windows and the room was not air conditioned but it felt quite comfortable. There were two brothers, one a professor in communications at Temple, the other a well known Philadelphia personality/news host for a major local TV channel. It was the latter who was initially chosen to lead this new group called the Clean Air Council.
I’m proud to be a Clean Air Council member 54 years later and contribute to defending everyone’s right to a healthy environment.
By longtime Clean Air Council member, James Castellan.
