FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2026
CONTACT:
John Neurohr, [email protected], 717-364-6452
PITTSBURGH – Today, ReImagine Appalachia and partners hosted a grant-making assistance event at the Pittsburgh Foundation to help attendees craft applications for the $52 million in available funding from the RISE PA program. Now in its second round, the RISE PA industrial decarbonization program is awarding medium- and large-scale grants to industrial facility operators with projects that cut factory emissions by at least 20 percent. State officials, as well as awardees from the last round, were on-site to provide guidance to new applicants. Labor leaders and community benefits experts also led workshops to help attendees factor community benefits and fair labor components into their proposals (projects increasing the social good are eligible for up to 30 percent bonuses).
“RISE PA is one of the best economic development tools Pennsylvania has — and the whole point of today is to make sure no good project gets left on the table for lack of help applying,” said Stephen Herzenberg, Co-Executive Director of ReImagine Appalachia. “With $52 million available in this round, we want every manufacturer in the region to know that cutting pollution, lowering energy costs, and staying competitive aren’t competing goals — they go hand in hand. And by building strong community benefits and fair labor standards into these applications, we can make sure this investment creates good-paying jobs that workers can raise a family on and cleans up the air in the neighborhoods nearest these facilities.”
State and regional organizations designed the event to catalyze RISE PA’s adoption, hoping to integrate it more fully in the commonwealth and support its replication across the Appalachian region.
Speakers included:
- Catherine Tulley, RISE PA Environmental Group Manager with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- Amanda Woodrum, Co-Director at ReImagine Appalachia
- Stephen Herzenberg, Co-Executive Director at ReImagine Appalachia
- James Kunz III, Pennsylvania Foundation for Fair Contracting
About ReImagine Appalachia
ReImagine Appalachia is a coalition working to ensure Appalachia is a leader in building a clean energy economy that creates good jobs and strengthens communities.