One of the key things I want to say tonight-- in the three hours Ed Wytovich gave me to speak-- is this-- I think we are in a period of an environmental renaissance. The environment is something that is trending up.
We have unprecedented resources today to address mine drainage treatment problems and abandoned mine reclamation problems.
We have unprecedented resources to deal with oil and gas well abandonment, methane emissions, and pollution coming from those wells.
We have dedicated state funding today for conservation on farms and agricultural areas.
We have an awakening of people that are concerned about issues like data centers.
They have discovered their voice again.
Now, I've been around a while. My interest in the environment started in 1970 during the first Earth Day.
And yes, I had a tie-dyed t-shirt and wore sandals. I took our family’s recycling to a recycling center in the Kmart parking lot. Fortunately, I lasted longer than Kmart, but that awakened my interest, like many others.
And frankly, that's where my career began because of that interest.
And I was lucky enough to get summer internships with the then DER [Department of Environmental Resources].
When I was Secretary of DEP, I said I was the oldest living intern at DEP because I had four summers doing internships with the Bureau of Air Quality in Harrisburg.
But I think we're in that kind of environmental renaissance today, because if you look at Pennsylvania's history, there are definitely periods you can point to where-- not just in 1970-- when there was an awakening.
Our first environmentalists were hunters and anglers who were just beside themselves with anger about what the timber industry did to clear-cut forests.
What the first oil and gas industry did putting oil wells every 150 feet up and down hillsides.
Our first environmentalists were the hunters and angers who were concerned about the loss of habitat and then a lot of things happened then.
You got state game and state forest lands, you got the beginning of new state laws to prevent pollution [like the 1936 Clean Streams Law].
Fast forward to the coal industry and concerns about what that industry did and the environmental insults to the environment and water and land, which we're still going through today.
But while Pennsylvanians may slow to get concerned, once they get concerned, stuff happens.
We've seen it over and over again.
I was lucky enough to be part of the Ridge and Schweiger administrations where again, a number of things converged.
We had leadership, not only in the Governor's office, but in the House and the Senate who were concerned about environmental issues.
We had to work hard, but we got a lot of things accomplished.
But a key part of what we were doing with programs like Growing Greener was giving people the tools that they needed to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish in their communities, in their watersheds.
The brownfields, land recycling legislation would set a precedent around the world.
We got over 13,600 sites cleaned up since that law was passed in 1995.
We gave people new tools that allowed them to do astounding things where now tens of thousands of people are working.
On Growing Greener, you and groups like you are a critical part of not only protecting, but especially restoring Pennsylvania's environment.
In 1998, when we were looking around at Governor Ridge's 21st Century Environment Commission, we were looking for models.
What would multiply the department's effort to meet not only things like Chesapeake Bay cleanup requirements, but to clean up historic legacy pollution like mine drainage, help farmers install conservation practices.
We looked at conservation districts and how they operated. We looked at different watershed groups and tried to figure out what you needed to succeed.
And we tried to put together a package of tools of not only grants for projects, but county watershed specialists, information sharing among groups, all sorts of different tools to help you succeed.
And you know what? You succeeded beyond I think anyone's expectation.
I took a call from another state at one point after Growing Greener was up and running where they asked, "You're giving all this money out to these watershed associations. Aren't you going to run to the Bahamas and just spend it all? Or wasted on stuff that's not going to work?"
I said, "No, we have a track record here that we can build on, but it's all based on developing partnerships with people in the community."
At that point in time, and even today obviously, DEP can't do everything.
The tradition was to build a big treatment plant and run it like a sewer plant. And there's a place for that because there are a lot of big discharges out there, but that was basically one of the only tools we had.
Now we've got Growing Greener and a lot of other tools in the toolbox to help community groups like you all represent and conservation districts and others cleaning up your worst.
One of the privileges I had as Secretary of DEP was to go to every single county in Pennsylvania-- I was on my third trip around the counties-- and the education I got by doing that was amazing.
I got to meet all sorts of people in business, local governments, farmers, watershed groups, you name it. All doing great stuff.
I had the opportunity to put these people in the spotlight and we did it because when people see someone like themselves doing something extraordinary, they can point to that person and say, "Well, if they're doing it, I can do it."
And we put a premium on it. Again, multiplying the effort to get more people involved. That was one of our key objectives.
And I think that's continuing today.
We have unprecedented resources. We have people in communities all over the state finding their voices on issues that they care about related to the environment.
And to me, yes, it's a little messy, in some cases very messy, but seeing that empowerment feeling from those people I think is absolutely critical.
It needs to be recognized. It needs to be supported.
So I guess in contrast to some people in Harrisburg or other places who say, "Well, the sky is falling on environmental, energy issues."
I point to the fact we have these unprecedented resources for mine reclamation, even clean energy and decarbonization-- $400 million dollars to play with.
Plus, we have an awakening of people who have rediscovered their voices like Pennsylvanians have done in the past, which I think is tremendous.
One of the things that I enjoy about doing my newsletter is putting a spotlight on people doing great stuff.
I mean, if I just covered what was happening in Harrisburg, if that was the only thing I was covering, I'd be very depressed sometimes.
But there are tens of thousands of people across this state who are doing what you are doing. You are not alone.
And that's one thing someone told me when I was at an event and they came up to me and said, "One thing the newsletter does is show what other people are doing, that they are doing those things and that I am not alone.”
Believe me, you are not alone caring about the environment, working in positive ways to not only be the boots in the stream, the boots of the bank planting trees, doing education, all those things that EPCAMR has done.
You are a critical part of what's happening.
Again, I think people are finding their voice. And like I said, it has happened before. And I think the environment is on an upswing.
What you need to do though is keep the pressure on to not only protect the resources that we have in terms of financial resources and staffing and the rest of it, but if we really want to protect and enhance our environmental resources, we should not be shy about asking for more.
Because I know from working with two state senators, from working with a bunch of governors, they can do anything they put their mind to.
But it's up to us to say very clearly what we want, what we want to protect, and we want them to do.
One of the things that I've heard recently-- and I'm thinking now of Franklin Kury who many of you may know is the author of the Environmental Rights Amendment to our constitution-- recently passed away.
I got a chance to work with him on a couple of things late in his life and the privilege of knowing him professionally.
And I think, again, looking back from Earth Day until now, the marvelous thing about people working in the environment in Pennsylvania is what a song group that I particularly like called Unspoken said--
“You can bury the workmen but the work will go on. And you can silence the voices but you can't stop the song.”
You are all singing that song and it will go on. And you've proven it's gone on for 30 years.
It will go on for 30 more years because of your dedication, because of your voices.
So I want to congratulate you on all that you have accomplished.
You're a critical part of restoring Pennsylvania's environment and I know that will continue.
Thank you very much for the recognition and for your work, thank you.
Related Articles This Week:
-- Eastern PA Coalition For Abandoned Mine Reclamation Celebrates 30 Years Of Hope, Hard Work Reclaiming Legacy Abandoned Mine Lands, Mine Water Pollution Across NE PA [PaEN]
-- Pennsylvanians Are Finding Their Voices Again On Environmental, Energy Issues They Care About [PaEN]
-- Inside Climate News - Jon Hurdle: Pennsylvania’s A.I. Data Center Boom Is Repeating Old Patterns Of Exploitation
-- We’ve Heard This Before: ‘We’re Providing Jobs - Stopping Pollution Threatens Jobs’ - A Brief Review Of Pennsylvania’s Conservation History [PaEN]
[Posted: September 23, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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