On April 30, DEP’s Climate Change Advisory Committee will hear a presentation on the public health impacts of climate change as well as an update on the Act 129 Energy Efficiency Program.

Health Impacts

Dr. Amir Sapkota from the University of Maryland School of Public Health will give the Committee an overview of the public health impacts of climate change based on Maryland’s experience.

Maryland has an active Climate Change Health Adaptation Program to help integrate health adaptation into the state’s response to climate change.

Housed in the Maryland Department of Health, the program provides a health focus to climate response efforts across the state, through technical assistance, development of epidemiologic tools and data products, and education and outreach.

The program primarily addresses extreme heat, air quality and respiratory illness, water-borne diseases, and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and tornadoes.

Among the products of the program is a climate change training curriculum for community health workers and extension workers. The training increases competency among informal healthcare networks in order to advise patients and community members on how to understand climate impact on themselves and their health.

A Climate Ambassador program targeted at school age youth in Maryland, provides students with tools and information to educate and empower themselves and their communities to respond to the impacts of a changing climate.

The Health Adaptation Program is based in part on a 2016 Maryland Climate and Health Profile Report prepared by the University of Maryland School of Public Health and the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health.

Dr. Sapkota was part of the team that developed the report.

The report made key findings about the health impacts of extreme heat and precipitation events and their consequences on hospitalizations and incidents of asthma, heart attacks, Salmonella and other infections, mosquito populations, motor vehicle accidents and emergency room visits.

Act 129

Joe Sherrick from the Public Utility Commission will provide an overview of the Act 129 Energy Efficiency Program utilities across the state are implementing.

The PUC is now considering the Phase IV expansion of the program and solicited comments on their proposed approach.

Studies by the PUC show the new 5-year energy efficiency targets for utilities required by Act 129 are cost-effective and could return $3 billion in benefits to Pennsylvania electric customers.

Expanding the Act 129 program was a key recommendation in the 2019 Climate Change Action Plan update.

Both the Senate-- Senate Bill 232 (Killion-R- Delaware)-- and House-- House Bill 193 (Quinn-R-Montgomery)-- have introduced bipartisan proposals to expand the Act 129 electric utility energy efficiency program, but neither bill has moved out of Committee since they were introduced in January of 2019.

For more on this program, visit the PUC’s Act 129 webpage.

Virtual Meeting

The Committee will hold a virtual meeting and instructions on how to participate are available on the Committee webpage.

For more information and available handouts, visit the DEP Climate Change Advisory Committee webpage.  Questions should be directed to Lindsay Byron by calling 717-772-8951 or sending email to: lbyron@pa.gov.

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