Last month, our very own Legislative Advocate, Emily Wildman, spoke at a press conference in Harrisburg alongside other advocates, calling on Pennsylvania leaders to protect our communities from the growing impacts of fossil fuel and plastic industry expansion. This is her speech.

Watch the Press Conference Here

My name is Emily Wildman and I am a life-long Pennsylvania resident and a mother of two. I am also a Legislative Advocate with Clean Air Action, but I stand here today in a mother’s love for her children and for the children across Pennsylvania who deserve better from our decision makers.

I urge lawmakers to cease the partisan rhetoric that has resulted in the perpetuation of known environmental consequences. We can have jobs AND clean, safe land for our children to grow up on. We will not accept either/or anymore. We are done with corporate profitability dictating human progress at any cost.

Petrochemicals: A Human Issue

What we are facing is not one isolated issue, but a systemic problem where fossil fuels, plastics, and industrial agriculture are deeply connected, and where the costs are carried by hardworking families, not the corporations making the profits.

These massive corporate entities have reigned long enough. Plastic is everywhere. We spray it on our food, feed it to our animals, it is in our bodies, in our brains and now we know it threatens our ability to reproduce as a species. Enough is enough.

The perpetuation of fossil-fuel derived plastic, known as petrochemicals, is a human issue. It is not political. As the deceptive fossil fuel industry, including its plastic-making (petrochemical) companies, seeks to expand and profit from the power demand of data centers, hardworking people and mother nature face serious consequences.

Despite rising utility bills across the U.S., the energy that produces that electricity still largely comes from costly fossil fuels. Households, including my own with two working parents, are increasingly burdened by rising energy costs, leaving many struggling to afford basic utility bills and make ends meet.

Knowing all of this, why do the fossil fuel and plastics industry officials continue touting the benefits of plastics?

Well, the answer is it's good for business. Making new plastic from oil and gas is cheaper and easier than recycling old plastic, keeping the plastics industry in business.

The Commonwealth is an energy leader, yet we depend on natural gas for over 60% of our electricity - more than any other state on our shared power grid and against expert advice. Now there is a push to power data centers with even more fossil fuel power plants, despite their price volatility and lack of reliability. The future of our energy leadership as a state is looking bleak as we prop up a long-time polluting industry for billionaires at the cost of Pennsylvania lives.

One petrochemical project in Pennsylvania received over $1.6 billion in taxpayer subsidies. The project has since been considered a major economic failure, with harmful consequences and now a toxic burden to the people living near it and some could argue to the company itself.

Imagine, what else we could have done with that $1.6 billion?

In addition to being a bad investment, petrochemical companies are consistently polluting our air, land, and water, and putting the health of surrounding communities at risk of a host of preventable harms. These industries rooted in finite resources take money out of hard working people’s pockets through significant tax cuts. Communities end up paying the real price of these failed economic experiments.

Instead of using taxpayer money to pay for these disappointing and harmful economic developments, elected officials should invest in their community’s health and natural resources by supporting more affordable clean energy.

A Better Way Forward

There is a better way forward from here. Stop investing in deceptive economic promises that are never realized at the cost of long-term public health and environmental harms. The problem is already here. Toxic petrochemical compounds are found in our brains, food supplies and drinking water and we are in a major energy crisis on the brink of unprecedented AI development.

The solution is in the hands of our lawmakers right now. Do we continue to invest in the dirty boom and bust cycle industries of the past? Or do we look to the future, like many other states have started to, and bring fast, safe jobs online quickly with clean, affordable electricity for all Pennsylvanians?

Demanding Change

I urge our elected lawmakers to approach our state policy in Pennsylvania as people serving the needs of those who they are elected to represent and in doing so, protecting and preserving our land, water and air to the best of their ability for the children of Pennsylvania. Done are the days of profit over people.

Let’s work together to make Pennsylvania healthy again. Let’s do it for our children. They deserve economic opportunity AND safe communities to live in.

Thank you.