To the Editor:
We — the undersigned faculty, students, staff and friends of [the University] — highlight the responsibility that [the University] has in doing its part to mitigate the existential threat of the climate crisis by first ending our reliance on fossil fuels for energy. In an age of climate change, [the University’s] mission to “educate our students to serve the common good and to promote justice in ways sensitive to the moral and ethical dimensions of life” is bound to be incomplete if our campus continues to rely on an energy matrix that exacerbates climate injustices and fails to acknowledge our ethical responsibilities to future generations and the nonhuman world. Meeting our mission requires retiring our campus fossil-fuel-fired power plant and we ask the University administration to begin this process.
Background & Rationale: In 2008, [the University] made a commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. Currently, we are not on track to meet this goal. Even if we met our promise, a neutrality commitment is inadequate for reducing our share of fossil fuel consumption to help avert the worst manifestations of climate change. Pennsylvania, like the rest of the world, is already experiencing these impacts.
In light of the now undeniable short window for climate action, other universities have shifted away from carbon neutrality to pledge to zero carbon. They are already decarbonizing by ending campus fossil fuel consumption, switching their main power source to renewables — such as parking lot and rooftop solar — in order to meet moral, financial, and educational responsibilities as institutions of higher education and contributors to climate change. Instead, at [the University], the use of carbon offsets — which entail continuing to burn fossil fuels for our energy and heating while paying others elsewhere to reduce their consumption — raises serious equity and climate justice concerns. Additionally, the finances on offset credits are rapidly changing; soon it may be more costly to pay for offsets than to shift our own fuels to on-campus generated renewable sources.
We ask that the University institute significant change in how we consume fossil fuels on campus, starting with the biggest contribution to our carbon footprint, the gas-fired cogeneration power plant. Students, faculty, and staff have raised the issue of retiring the cogen plant for almost a decade, and it is time to begin.
We call on the Provost, the President, the Associate Vice President for Facilities and Sustainability, and the Board of Trustees to commit to shutting down the fossil-fuel cogen plant and building alternative sources of energy by 2030 as the first tactic under the existing priority for environmental sustainability in the strategic plan. Our strategic plan pledge to be a sustainable campus — environmentally, socially, and financially— necessitates that we alter how we fuel our campus. Climate reality requires that we make this change within the next ten years.
If you’d like to sign this petition, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/y63hvpwj
Katelyn N. Allers
Erica Delsandro
Andrew Stuhl
Michael Drexler
Jennifer Thomson
Claire Campbell
Deepak Iyer
Mehmet Dosemeci
Molly McGuire
David Kristjanson-Gural
Clare Sammells
Amanda Wooden
Ellen K Herman
Elena Machado
Stephen Buonopane
Samantha Pearson
Erin Rigney
Kyle Fouke
Carly Masonheimer
Matilda Melkonian
Lindsay Knupp
Torie Tezik
Shannon McCollum
Ian Mawn
Will Kerber
Lindsey Knutzen
Nina Duffy
Lily Shorney
Allison Jennings
Matthew Levine
Marissa Yoo
Timothy Lynch
Haley Scopelliti
Gavin Lindsay
Carrie Loomis
Sage Lamade
Joshua Mejia
Abike Beke
Scarlett Horn
Jessica Parrino
Caroline Bolton
David Rojas
Cheyenne McKinley
Douglas Collins
Kyle W. Bray
John Penniman
Bitseat Getaneh
Kojo Lokko
Gianna Crisafulli
Jennifer Hessler
Jennie Stevenson
Rafe Dalleo
Kevin Myers
Carl Kirby
Eddy A. López
Geoffrey Schneider
Ken Field
Rebecca Meyers
Alan Marchiori
Sue Ellen Henry
Julissa Ortiz Ramos
Elise Covert
Judy Grisel
Manuel Larrabure
Paula Closson Buck
Roger Rothman
Greg Pask
Collin McKinney
Nina Banks
Jessica Pouchet
Tammy Bunn Hiller
Beth Willer
Moria Chambers
Ronald D Ziemian
Justine Seiler
Moriel Peng
Darakhshan Mir
Jeremy Chow
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Kris Trego
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