See the presentation by Mayor Fetterman in the Senate.
EDF has teamed up with the John Fetterman, the young mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, to create a series of powerful print, television, and on-line advertisements in support of cap and trade climate legislation before Congress.
Braddock has seen better days. Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill was built here, and for generations the town and its economy prospered along with the steel industry. At its height, 20,000 people lived in Braddock, but with the long decline of American steel, the town’s population has dwindled to just 2,800.
With cap and trade legislation, Fetterman sees an economic opportunity for Braddock – an opportunity to revitalize the devastated community by creating jobs in the new energy economy. Jobs making steel towers for wind turbines, jobs manufacturing energy efficient windows, jobs making low-energy lighting, and thousands of others products.
Fetterman says he's participating in this campaign without compensation of any kind, "because I believe it's a powerful solution to both environmental and economic problems." Solutions sat down with Fetterman on April 22, the day he testified before Congress.
I grew up in York, Pennsylvania, and I came to Braddock after getting out of graduate school. The community had suffered greatly from the deindustrialization of the 1970s and 1980s, and I got involved with severely disenfranchised members of the community in 2001. I was attracted by the idea that you could use green manufacturing to turn things around, and after becoming mayor I had the opportunity to try that. Cap and trade will be the driver for these new industries – you don’t have to go to Harvard to understand that.
I don't want anyone to think of this as a panacea, and I’m not suggesting that the streets will become paved with gold. But I think this is a great way to revive our industry and become an exporter to countries like China, not the other way around. Since Braddock become involved in this effort, about half a dozen companies have expressed interest in working with us.
If you're not aware and worried about climate change, you’re not paying attention. A couple years ago, we had buds coming out on trees in January. We can’t ignore the issue. But in Braddock, we see this as an opportunity to create jobs. Most of the people I talk to don’t wear Patagonia, and they’re not traditional environmentalists. They just want to provide for their families. Every person in the advertisements I made with EDF is a laid-off steelworker. I want to give them a future in Braddock.