Harrisburg, Pa. − April 30, 2019 − Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Jr. announced today $350,000 in state grant funding in a violence prevention initiative for the Woodland Hills School District communities in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.
“Last year, we in state government decided that had seen enough violence in our schools and communities and created a grant program for schools and organizations to make their facilities and neighborhoods safer,” said Senator Costa. “Our community stepped up and submitted worthy applications for these grants to reduce violence and I’m anxious to see their work brought to fruition.”
Pittsburgh Action Against Rape will deliver a comprehensive approach to reducing sexual violence by primarily working with WHSD and continued work in the community through the parents and community members of the district.
“When we created these grants, I made it a priority to ensure that Woodland Hills and the surrounding area got the funds they need for anti-violence programming,” said Senator Costa. “I also want to thank the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape for taking the lead in developing this project.”
The proposed programs include an after-school program for K-6 th grade, two days a week; social norms group; Coaching Boys Into Men (CBIM); Athletes Leading Change (ALC); Parents in the Know (PITK) trainings to other professionals, and the use of a Community Readiness Model (CRAM), which measures a community’s readiness to change.
These programs will serve up to 3,500 students and 600 adults, as well as surrounding communities with an estimated population of 21,000 individuals
This project will deliver a comprehensive approach to reducing sexual violence by primarily working with WHSD youth and continued work in the community to the parents and community members of the district. Prevention work will be done on multiple levels including evidence- and research-based programming to youth in the school district through afterschool programs, working with parents, male and female athletes, trainings of professions within the school district and systems in the feeder municipalities.
Programs to students will be done through classroom presentations, after-school programming, small group work with male and female athletes, and community work with parents and caregivers. Programs will focus on social norms to increase bystander intervention skills, awareness of trauma focused services available to victims and their families and increase and identify resiliency factors in students.
Act 44 of 2018 created a School Safety and Security Fund for the purposes of providing funding to school districts for school safety and security concerns and addressing community violence. $60 million was put into the fund with $7.5 million for community anti-violence programs and the remaining 52.5 million for school safety.
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Harrisburg, PA − April 29, 2019 − At a press event earlier today at the State Capitol, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced his decision for the state to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, and offered his support for Senators Steve Santarsiero and Art Haywood’s Senate Bill 600.
The United States Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Led by state governments, the alliance facilitates state cooperation to accelerate the deployment of climate solutions to help each state achieve its climate goals.
“We’ve seen lately even more evidence that there is a need for leadership on climate change. For that reason, Pennsylvania will join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors, representing over half of the U.S. population to work to implement policies that uphold the commitments our nation made in the Paris Agreement,” said Governor Wolf.
Senate Bill 600 modernizes the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS) for the first time since 2004. Specifically, the legislation:
- Expands the AEPS Tier I requirement from 8% to 30% by 2030, including 7.5% for in-state grid-scale solar and 2.5% for in-state distributed generation solar;
- Directs the PUC to study the benefits of a renewable energy storage program;
- Provides for several protections that control costs for electricity customers, including long-term contracting, fixed ACP payments, and a 15-year lifetime limit for generating eligible SRECs for solar projects.
“Make no mistake, when the history of our era is written, global climate change will be identified as the number one issue,” said Senator Santarsiero. “Future generations will judge us based on what we do or don’t do on that issue. Passing SB 600 is a critical step if we’re going to make Pennsylvania a leader in combating global climate change.”
“In spite of rapid global climate change, the federal government is moving to deregulate and lessen the protections we have for our air and water,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Jr. “We must do everything we can at the state level to protect this planet. That means joining the US Climate Alliance and pushing legislation like SB600.”
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PITTSBURGH, April 23, 2019 – At the request of state Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D-Forest Hills) and Senator Wayne Fontana (D-Brookline), the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing today in Pittsburgh on strategies for combatting climate change by reducing methane gas emissions.
“Methane has a huge impact on global warming,” Costa said. “As the second largest gas-producing state in the nation, it is imperative that Pennsylvania do all it can to reduce methane emissions.”
Fontana added, “While our federal government should be taking the lead on developing policies, emissions reduction goals and coordinating a national response on climate change, our president’s shameful abandonment of the Paris climate accord makes it imperative that state leaders take the helm on this critical issue.”
Methane is an odorless, colorless, flammable greenhouse gas (CH4) that is used as fuel. It is also an important source of hydrogen and part of a wide variety of organic compounds. Methane is a huge component of natural gas and can remain in the atmosphere for about 9 to 15 years.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, methane warms our planet 86 times more than carbon emissions. Earlier this month, Andrew Williams, who serves as director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund, criticized the Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection’s revised draft rule because it would only mandate the capture of 21 percent of methane emissions. If the rule were adopted, Williams claims Pennsylvania would have the least protective methane rule in the nation.
Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton/Lehigh), who chairs the committee, argued that the issue should not pit Pennsylvania’s environment against its economy.
“Controlling carbon emissions and building a strong economy are not competing interests,” she said. “As alternative energy sources become more reliable, affordable and efficient, we must be ready to embrace and capitalize on the economic opportunities that accompany these promising technological advances. This doesn’t need to be framed as some dire choice between poverty and pollution.
In withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord in 2017, President Donald Trump defended his decision by claiming he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” Costa and Fontana (D-Allegheny) immediately criticized the president’s decision.
In the accord, the United States had committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below the 2005 level in 2025, and to make “best efforts” to reduce emissions by 28 percent. That would include curbs on carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride, all of which contribute to global warming.
Several state bills and proposals were introduced to supplement existing environmental protection efforts included in the decade-old Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) and Energy Efficiency and Conservation law (Act 129).
Williams urged the legislature to support Gov. Tom Wolf’s greenhouse gas reduction commitments, implement a viable methane existing source regulation and defend the Department of Environmental Protection’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
Rob Altenburg, Director, PennFuture Energy Center, said, “The natural gas industry is going to be part of the Pennsylvania economy for many years, but we are no longer in an era where we can ignore pollution as a natural consequence of economic growth. Avoiding the worst impacts of global warming requires that we remain under a set carbon budget – and that means that any additional emissions from the natural gas sector are emissions we will need to account for later or face the costs.
Arvind Ravikumar, an Assistant Professor of Energy Engineering for the University of Harrisburg, told the senators, “With the profusion of new technology in the methane space, falling costs for renewable energy, and competitive electric vehicle prices, protecting the environment almost becomes secondary to the potential for thousands of high-paying, clean energy jobs. The best way to give Pennsylvania businesses and industry a leg up is to help them prepare for the transition through well-crafted, cost-effective state policies.”
Today’s hearing was the second in a series of Policy Committee hearings on climate change. The committee held a hearing in Pittsburgh last November, focusing on carbon emissions.
Joining Fontana, Costa and Boscola at the hearing were Senators Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and Jim Brewster (D-Allegheny/Westmoreland).
Hearing participants included the following:
- Andrew Williams, Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, Environmental Defense Fund;
- Rebecca Kiernan, Senior Resilience Coordinator, City of Pittsburgh;
- Arvind Ravikumar, Assistant Professor of Energy Engineering, University of Harrisburg of Science and Technology;
- Jared Metcalf, USA Operations Manager, Target Emission Services;
- Rob Altenburg, Director, PennFuture Energy Center; and
- Jane Worthington and Dale Tiberie, residents of Washington County.
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Sen. Jay Costa honored at Pittsburgh’s Elly Awards
Senator Jay Costa was recognized with the Impact Award at the 2019 Elly Awards Gala alongside the incredible Joanne Rogers.
“We definitely wanted to keep the movie in Pittsburgh,” Costa said. “Pittsburgh is Fred and Joanne Rogers’ beloved city. The movie will definitely have an impact on the city, and Pittsburgh will be showcased on the big screen everywhere.”
Senator Costa’s interview from KDKA on Elly Awards below.
In our extraordinary session today, we have extraordinary men and women who have joined us to honor those who lost their life in the horrific attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
We honor those victims who perished that day in an act of violent hatred.
Today, we acknowledge the incalculable loss and the heartache that remains for what was taken from our midst.
However, we remain steadfast, strong, and resolute against the hatred that destroyed men and women who simply went to pray that October day.
In our lives and amid tragedy we do not walk alone. We walk together. We shoulder the burdens, wipe away the tears, and reach out to those in need.
We know that love defeats hate and that only hate wins when we are not strong. When we lose faith.
Our prayers and our fellowship poured out to those who lost loved ones on that tragic day.
Our responsibility is now to extend our outstretched arms, comfort those in need and define a path forward so that this type of tragedy never happens again.
The despair and anguish will remain with all who shared experiences with those who perished.
However, it cannot consume us, or hate will win.
That’s what we are about today. We have come together in a demonstration of love and affection. This extraordinary session is about calling forth extraordinary resolve.
Our fight against hate and bigotry will continue, because the forces of evil knock at our door.
Those who worship at the Tree of Life Synagogue, and all others who pray in whatever denomination and faith and believe that love conquers hate, had our faith shaken that day.
It is that same faith, though shaken, is what will see us through.
In a time of great misery, pain and sorrow, Pittsburgh and the nation has shown resiliency. We have shown great strength.
We have a responsibility today to remember what happened that day, mourn those who we taken from us and ensure that love defeats hate.
There was a Jewish poem for comfort that was shared many times last October, and I’d like to share it again now with you:
As long as we live,
they too will live;
for they are now a part of us
as we remember them.
Today, it is our job is to make this world better because of them.
Thank you.
Pittsburgh, PA – March 29, 2019 – Earlier today, Governor Tom Wolf nominated Allegheny County Public Defender Elliot Howsie to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Donna Jo McDaniel.
“I was honored to recommend Elliot Howsie,” said Senator Jay Costa, Jr. “Mr. Howsie has the incredible breadth of work and life experience for this position, and I believe he will be an invaluable addition to the bench. His peers agree, and in addition to my and the Governor’s support, he has the highest recommendation of the Bar Association.
“He possesses the requisite temperament and intellect for the job, and I look forward to his confirmation process in the coming weeks.”
Howsie grew up in Wilkinsburg, and after graduating from Central Catholic High School, Elliot attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where he earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in criminal justice.
As he pursued his master’s degree in criminal justice, Elliot worked in social services teaching decision making and reintegration skills to the children at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.
Elliot went on to serve as an Assistant District Attorney for five years in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, where he focused on prosecuting cases involving child abuse. After leaving the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, he established his own law firm. He worked as a sole practitioner specializing in criminal defense as well as personal injury cases in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, the Pennsylvania Superior Court, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
On March 19, 2012, Elliot Howsie was appointed by Allegheny County Executive, Rich Fitzgerald, to be Allegheny County’s first African American Chief Public Defender.
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