In this 2015 ribbon‑cutting address at Sirius/Keystone in Vandergrift, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell emphasizes the strategic importance of renewable and alternative energy for the state’s long‑term economic health. He frames the next 25 years of energy demand as a global challenge, arguing that conservation—exemplified by energy‑efficient windows—will be as crucial as new production. Rendell outlines the massive federal stimulus package flowing into Pennsylvania, detailing tax cuts, food‑stamp enhancements, and a $472 million allocation for green‑job creation, including $250 million for home weatherization and $5 million in career‑opportunity grants for workforce retraining. He highlights state‑level incentives such as the Keystone HELP Energy Efficiency Program, low‑interest loans, and rebates that make energy‑retrofit projects financially attractive. Throughout, he calls on businesses, labor, and citizens to “roll up their sleeves,” urging immediate hiring, corporate responsibility, and confidence in the future to revive the economy, drawing parallels to past recoveries from the Great Depression and world wars.
Chapters
It's great to have a job that you can provide for your family and take care of things, but it's also great to feel that you're doing something that's really important. And here in Vandergrift at Sirius, you are. Let me tell you just how important it is. Many of you know that since I became governor, I've been trying to help us diversify our economy and become a state that produces a lot of renewable and alternative energy. Not because I'm a tree hugger either, Robin, but because I understand that that's going to be the economic wave of the next 25 years. Alternative and renewable energy and conservation are going to be to the next 25 years what information technology and biosciences and life sciences have been to the last 25 years. And we have to be ahead of the curve. And right now, I think we're the leading state east of the Mississippi River in terms of the renewable and alternative energy that we're producing, the megawatts we're producing, the jobs that have come from that. It's a great start. And what you're doing today is enormously important because Kevin and I were discussing this before we came out. If every wind and solar and hydro plant that's being planned, if all the biofuels get up and running, If we build more coal-fired plants and use clean coal technology, if we even expand nuclear, if we drill more, by 2025 we still will not have enough energy to meet the growing demand. Because understand that 25 years ago the demand for energy came from the U.S. and Europe. That was it. Now it's coming from everywhere— Brazil, huge energy consumer. India and China taking energy at a rate that's going to surpass us in a few short years. Of course it's going to surpass us because they have so many more people than we do. They never used to, but it's coming like a freight train. And we're never going to meet demand by production. We are only going to be able to meet demand if we teach the world how to conserve. And what you're doing producing these windows is all about conservation, because not only does it cut a family's heating bill, but it cuts their usage. It cuts their usage. So when Kevin said you're fighting for American energy independence, you are. When Kevin said you're fighting to make this world a better place for your kids— and Robin, you didn't mention grandkids— but you are. There's no question about it. And that's, in the long run, the most important thing. But in the short run, obviously, it's no secret that this American economy is in worse shape than any time since the Great Depression. And all of us together— business leaders, governmental leaders, labor leaders, individual families— we've all got to roll up our sleeves and beat this thing. And I believe with all my heart we can. And you can argue politics all you want. But let me tell you, that stimulus plan— and Kevin was right, Senator Specter deserves a lot of credit for voting for it— because that stimulus plan will send— just to give you a snapshot, Pennsylvania is getting $18 billion. That's billion with a B. $8 billion of it goes directly to Pennsylvania families. It goes in the tax cut that you'll receive— $800 if you make less than $150,000. $175,000 a year, $400 if you're single. It goes to Pennsylvania families where one or both of the workers in that family is on unemployment compensation. It increases benefits and a longer period of time of coverage. If you happen to be on food stamps— and I know food stamps used to be something that people said only the poorest of people, only welfare people took food stamps, but now a lot of Americans are on food stamps. 1.3 million Pennsylvanians are getting food stamps today. The increase in $32 a month in the stipend for food stamps, that'll help the families a little bit. But somebody do the math. 32 times 1.3 million, it's about $37, $38 million more in spending a month. You extrapolate that over 12 months, That's almost half a billion dollars in spending. And you talk about getting money into the economy for certain and with speed, nothing is better than food stamps. People don't save— put the food stamps in savings accounts. They take them out and they spend them. And that's good for mom-and-pop stores. It's good for the chain stores. It's good for food distributors, food processors. It's good for the farmers. That's another half a billion dollars going into our economy. And in all this money, $472 million goes into the Pennsylvania economy for the production of green jobs. $472 million. And that doesn't account for the tax credit that President Obama is giving American families who make their homes energy efficient. You were eligible— and it's not the only reason that Kevin is here, but it's a good reason— you were eligible under the Obama plan, if you spend $7,000 getting your home retrofitted with serious windows, you were eligible for for a $1,500 tax credit. That means $1,500 less in federal income tax that you have to pay. You're also eligible because of an act that we passed here in Pennsylvania in July of last year. You're also eligible to take advantage of the Keystone HELP Energy Efficiency Program, which will give you either a very low-interest loan repayable over 20 years to buy that $8,000 or $10,000 or $15,000 worth of energy efficiency, or— $10,000. The state has a $500 rebate program. So if you spend $8,000 retrofitting your home with energy-efficient windows, you'll get $2,000 of that back from the state and the federal government. So the next time you hear someone say government can't do anything, government programs don't work, tell them they're wrong. They're absolutely wrong. This is how government can and should be a player. Thank you. in incentivizing the development of green jobs, in helping us fight back. Because we've got to fight back. We've got to fight back. And if there are factories closing, Robin, and those factories are never coming back, you're right. But there are new technologies that still need good, hardworking women and men to man them and to staff them. And we've got to make sure that we here in America, and particularly we here in Pennsylvania, lead the pack in getting those type of new technologies into those factories and getting people back to work. And often it may require retraining. And I just announced a week ago $5 million in what we call career opportunity grants to help train people in the new green job economy. And in that $472 million, there's $250 million just for weatherizing homes. And of course, this is part of weatherizing homes. And we're announcing in the next 60 days another $5 million in training grants for folks to learn how to help weatherize homes. Because under the weatherization plan— that's 7 times more than we've spent in any one year on weatherization— under the weatherization plan, we intend to weatherize 47,000 homes in Pennsylvania. Now, that's very labor-intensive. Weatherizing a home is very labor-intensive. That's a lot of jobs. That's a lot of jobs that are going to be created by stimulus. So it is time to fight back, and it is time for hope. And one of the reasons that I came here today is not only because it's such a great announcement, not only because Sirius is such a good visionary company, but because there's good news. And amidst all the bad news, there is good news out there. And it's up to us as leaders, it's up to us as citizens to take that good news and run with it. And run with it. I mean, if we sit around and say, "Woe is me," and just circle the wagons and and try to protect our flanks, it's not going to change. It's going to spiral downward and downward and downward. But we as Americans and as Pennsylvanians too, we helped build this country, and we built it through challenging times. We overcame the Depression. We've overcome world wars. We've overcome so many challenges. And we can do it again. And the way we do it is the way we've always done it— just rolling up our sleeves, getting to work, not being afraid. Not being afraid. I tell businessmen all the time, we can come back. We can come back. And the way we come back is everybody to take a tiny little bit of a chance. If you were thinking of hiring 8 or 10 additional workers because you got a new idea to expand, do it now. Don't wait. until it gets better, let's do it now, because it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we all do things now, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And we need American business to respond. Back in Philadelphia, Sunoco— you all know about Sunoco Gasoline— Sunoco just laid off 20% of its salaried workers, despite the fact it made almost $1 billion in profit in 2008. If it were up to me, there'd be a law: if you're making a profit, you cannot lay off a worker. I understand when companies are losing money, if they have to lay off workers to stay afloat, to keep some jobs available, to keep the door open. But if you've made a billion dollars of profit, should you be laying off workers? No way. No way. So corporate America has to help us fight back. They have to have confidence in the future. Kevin and the folks from Sirius, California company, they have confidence in the future. They have confidence in you. They know what a workforce that they've had here at Keystone. They know the work ethic of people in Southwest Pennsylvania, Robin. And they're here, and they're going to stay here and be here, and they're going to grow here. And we're going to fight back, and we're going to lick this thing. Thank you all. Thank you.
