Axios Event: Balancing clean energy with legacy industries is crucial to Pittsburgh’s energy transition, local leaders say

PITTSBURGH, PA.. – While Pittsburgh leaders are working to advance emerging local clean energy sectors, they are simultaneously focused on more established industries such as steel, aviation and oil and gas that have long been a crucial part of the region's economy.

Why it matters: The city is working to strike a balance between clean energy technologies and high-emissions industries in the area.

• Axios transportation correspondent Joann Muller hosted conversations with Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Stefani Pashman, Pittsburgh City Council member Erika Strassburger and director of Carnegie Mellon University's Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation Costa Samaras at the event.
• This event was sponsored by Shell.

What they're saying: "We have to figure out how to make energy clean, we have to continue to support our manufacturing base and those hard to abate industries that are very much part of our industrial core, and we have a real opportunity here and an imperative," Pashman said.

Samaras is hopeful that Pittsburgh will be able to decarbonize its high emissions industries. "Not only can we do it, we have to do it fast, and we have to do it first," Samaras said.

• There is not any one clean energy technology that will get us to net zero, Samaras said, also noting the promising growth of Pennsylvania's hydrogen, nuclear and carbon capture industries.

What's next: Continued partnership between federal, state and local government is crucial as federal investments in clean energy make their way to state programs and initiatives, said Strassburger.

• Pittsburgh City Council member Strassburger noted that the ability to move bills through the legislative process quickly in local government is an asset, stating the local level can serve as a "testing ground" for other policies.
• "The challenge is that we don't have the same reach, the same jurisdiction and the same amount of money to be able to really make impactful decisions and implement policies in a really impactful way, so it really is important to partner with other levels of government," Strassburger said.

"Out by the airport is the first civilian nuclear power plant in the entire United States, back in the '50s and '60s. So the Pittsburgh area has always been an area for nuclear innovation, and the Biden administration has recently launched a whole number of efforts to advance nuclear power in the United States, backed by the investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law." Samaras said.

Content from sponsored segment below:

In a View From the Top conversation, Shell senior vice president of U.S. chemicals and products Emma Lewis said that while she wishes the transition to cleaner energy was "as simple as flipping a switch," the reality is that decarbonization efforts are costly and take time.

• "So I think for a company like Shell, what we're trying to figure out is how do we keep supplying the products and things that the customers need, that could be fuels, it could be polymers, it could be detergents, but how do we start to do it in a way that produces less carbon?"