Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro campaigned on an environmental platform propped up by green jobs, innovation on the road to decarbonization, promises to plug the state’s hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells and a determination to hold polluters accountable for malfeasance. Compared with his opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R – 33), his environmental record was strong: As attorney general, Shapiro had been tough on oil and gas companies and on the regulators that permit them and taken a hard line on PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” His commitment to building out the commonwealth’s renewables and electric vehicle infrastructure in service of a net-zero by 2050 emissions goal offered a new vision of what the state’s energy economy could look like.
But as Shapiro begins his term, after a year in which the state saw scorching heat waves and damage from flooding caused by Hurricane Ida, questions remain about how exactly his administration will carry out this agenda. Just one week prior, on Jan. 10, he appointed the first Latino secretary in agency history to head up the Department of Environmental Protection: Rich Negrín comes to the position with more managerial experience than environmental work on his résumé, but Shapiro believes he will effectively manage the agency to “[carry] out a bold, comprehensive climate and energy plan.”
