Grow Rural PA President Deborah Pontzer Presents at the Energy Communities Interagency Working Group Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Deborah Pontzer Presents at the Energy Communities Interagency Working Group Meeting
Grow Rural PA President Deborah Pontzer was asked to speak at the Energy Communities Interagency Working Group (IWG) meeting in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Department of Energy’s Capacity Building for Repurposing Energy Assets grant program.
Deborah Pontzer was invited to present after Grow Rural PA was awarded a $100,000 grant, in January, from the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. The grant program entitled, Capacity Building for Repurposing Energy Assets, was specifically for communities that have historically relied on fossil-fuel energy assets. It had a four-pronged approach. First, it aimed to help communities with the technical capacity and expertise needed to address the challenges of a changing economy. Second, it focused on creating a plan to attract and retain a skilled workforce. Third, it aimed to address the environmental impacts experienced in many energy communities. Lastly, the goal was to provide the DOE with data from each project.
At the IWG meeting, Pontzer spoke about the importance of a grant program like this one, “Why does this grant matter? Grants such as the Department of Energy’s Capacity Building grant are the tools for thoughtful, engaged, and intentional economic development. This grant represents a paradigm shift – instead of outside investors and top-down government programs, the DOE asked for our opinion, and they asked us to reimage our energy assets. They tasked us with identifying a challenge or an opportunity and then provided the financial resources for us to develop a roadmap.”
Grow Rural PA was established as a community-based non-profit dedicated to building human capital and advocating for rural communities. The board’s vision is one of vibrant, rural towns with equal access to resources to ensure their future viability in a global economy. This grant allowed Grow Rural PA to develop a project to build solar fields on reclaimed mine land and to produce green hydrogen, extract critical minerals, and supply local companies with compressed hydrogen. As Pontzer stated, “It is an opportunity to prove that rural, energy communities are no longer a fly-over country but rather part of the solution to our growing energy demands.”
The IWG’s mission is to ensure that energy workers and communities are not left behind during the nation’s transition to clean energy. Their purpose is to be a one-stop shop for easily accessible sources of federal government funding information and technical assistance available to traditional energy workers, communities, and stakeholders to support their economic revitalization efforts. Therefore, they were especially interested in hearing Pontzer speak as a grant recipient.
Pontzer concluded her presentation by emphasizing to the attendees at the IWG event that “Programs such as these can make a real difference in people's lives. We can produce energy without destroying the environment, and we can create sustainable communities with good-paying jobs.”