We welcome PA Senator Bob Mensch (24th District) to discuss the Pennsylvania Clean Transportation Infrastructure Bill that aims to spur the development of electric, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles by developing the transportation infrastructure to support them. The proposed bill contains provisions for: • Establishing a state goal of increasing electrification by at least 50 percent by 2030; • Requiring the development of regional electrification infrastructure frameworks for metropolitan areas; • Directing electric utilities to develop infrastructure implementation plans to support the development of these networks under Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission oversight.
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Good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. And I am always thrilled to be here each and almost every day not every day to post business as usual, then we've been doing this since COVID. And it's hard to believe it's about 16 months, but we have had a chance to have conversations with amazing people, people have a lot of impact. And today is no different. We are thrilled to have Pennsylvania senator bob ments. And we're going to talk a little bit about what he's up to, and all the things that he cares about and has been leading, including this clean transportation infrastructure bill, which we all care about here in southwestern Pennsylvania, as well as around the country in the world. So want to thank Huntington bank for being our sponsors, and just being great partners over the over the year and everything that we do in terms of highlighting the region talking about issues that impact us and being supportive to our business, both large and small. Also huge appreciation to at&t, they have always been partners with us on our public policy series today is no exception. And they have been amazing at the beginning of COVID. And all through making sure people have access to the tools that they need, who work remotely and make sure that people are safe and sound. They've just been terrific ambassadors for the region and for making sure that the digital divide sort of got eradicated. So 40 by 80. That's the longitude and latitude of the Pittsburgh tech Council and our charitable arm. And that's where we focus on education and pathways to new opportunities. So we've muted your microphones, Jonathan Kersting, Vice President of all things, media and marketing is with us. As always, he will keep his eye on the chat. And we are here to have a conversation not to sell our wares. It's really an opportunity to do a little bit of a deep dive with our guest. And I'm going to bring him right on right now. So welcome to the program. Senator max. Thanks, man. Thank you so much for being with us. And before we get started, what we really love to do is just to get to know a little bit about you. So can you share a little bit about your background, you know, before you join the General Assembly, and maybe a little bit about the 24th district?
Sure. All right, first of all, thank you for the opportunity. It's good to be here joined with all of you. My background, I was in telecom for 35 years 28 of those years with a company called at&t you might be familiar with them yeah, I was on the equipment side most of my life computers and and premises equipment. And I spent another seven years with a ASE LEC called Ouroboros communications and did a great deal of business out in Pittsburgh area. Fact. I still remember being in Pittsburgh at 911 being out there for business reasons. So Oh, so there are good memories in not so good memories with Pittsburgh, but fantastic town. I was out the other week for another event and it's it's just a growing, bustling area. I love it out there has a much more Midwestern feel to it than the Philadelphia that I am so accustomed to. The 24 Senate District comprises parts of three counties and every county Bucks County and Berks County. I am in the northwestern sector of montgomery county and then the adjoining parts of bucks and Berks.
So that's that's kind of a mix, right? We used to say you cut across sort of a pretty diverse community and some of it rural and some of it closer to Philly.
Yes, we have urban suburban and we are rocks and trees. We have rule Yes. But it's a great district and I grew up as Pennsylvania German so I have a great deal of eye contact with those folks still out in the Berks County or in the bucks. That's great.
That's great. So you have a nice snapshot of Pennsylvania which So, you serve on the leadership team in the PA Senate. You also serve on several really important and relevant committees to all of us, including the the senate Communications and Technology committee, and given by your background, we know that you probably add tremendous value there and the Community Economic and recreational activities committee. So we're here we want to talk about the clean infrastructure. But before we do that, talk about your work and including your work as co chair of the Senate Life Sciences caucus and your work and your work on the jobs caucus. So there's a lot to cover. But it would be great for us to know all that you're working on and that what you've participated in?
Sure. My, my true motivation for even getting involved in politics was economic development. And Pennsylvania is a great state I've enjoyed many years living here in all my years of life practically. But it's where we are very diverse state, we have a great many opportunities from, from both a resource, a natural resource, as well as human resource potentials. But I think that we underutilized a lot of our resource, particularly the human capital, and we don't give enough opportunity to our businesses, expand our businesses, build our economy. And once again, with the latest report, we've had an unemployment data, as they as still trends well behind the nation. In the 15 years that I've been in the legislature, I think that's true every month. That says that we're we're not capitalizing no pun intended, but we're not capitalizing on the resources that we have available. So we need to figure out a better way to do business pensively, has a very well embedded culture, but one that I think has to modify, change and be able to grow and expand so that we we can accommodate the the youth, the people that are growing up into the the more culturally and and technically diverse corporations that are beginning to develop here in Pennsylvania and across the United States. And that takes me to the life sciences where there are great opportunities to benefit mankind through many advances in life sciences, it's, it could be a gene therapies and other areas of investigation or research, it could also be the equipment and the materials that are necessary to support someone's life exosuits. Some some kind of medic, mechanical devices for individuals, it could be devices used in surgery, medical procedures, it it's PP, it's a very diverse area, but but it's one that I think all of our lives have been impacted with. Over the last 16 months, particularly and we we have a growing or an increased awareness of what PPA means, probably that's an acronym those probably heyland and 90% of us 17 months ago, and today, we talk about it as if it was part of our natural life. So Life Sciences contributes to all of that. It is a very capital intensive area, it needs some stewardship from the state is some of the things that we can do from a tax perspective, or an investment perspective. And so it is the state great opportunity to work with industry in, in growing our economy. Even with that the the failure rate in that industry is fairly high. And it's not a shortage of capital very often, it's more so that the research just didn't take us to the endpoint that we needed to be. But that doesn't take away from the need to have the state do have a vital partner to life sciences development in the state. And we have we have a legacy out here in the southeast, right? I hail from, we have a legacy of fine human resource researchers, chemists, pharmaceutical researchers and technicians. We have a great many opportunities to help them expand their lives and provide better for their families. If we just give them the right tools and what's the what's the worst that can happen and expand the economy. So that's a good thing.
Yeah, absolutely. So we're gonna talk about the clean infrastructure. Right. We're gonna want to jump into that or do you want to talk a little bit about the, you know, the Committee on Communications and Technology? Well, we
talked about that briefly. Yeah, let's do it. Here again, Pennsylvania. Like so many states, we found that we probably didn't have adequate infrastructure for communications, as we went into remote schooling, remote healthcare and so forth. And the the buzzword now is broadband. That seems to encompass everything that's wrong with communications right now, it's a, it's a much more complex issue than that. But we have not had adequate build out of the sophisticated, the more advanced services that are necessary, we want to tie everybody together and give them all the the appropriate bandwidth to be able to have the the kind of communications I think that we all expect. But it's been economically driven. It's been private market driven. And I have no problem with that. But I think that we need to have ultimately, we need some additional government guidance to try and, and help that last mile, which is a term from from the old telecom days, or the Potts, plain old telephone service. That last mile has to be something that the the government encourages, because the economics may not be there for combiner. So there are some things that we're doing there. There's far more than we need to do. But it's certainly something that could again, enhance the economic growth of the state. Do you think,
though, that during COVID, when we really saw the last mile fall apart, that there's an appetite to begin to address some of these, these issues that you're that you're talking about? Because COVID definitely I our awareness?
I yes, I would say that there is an appetite. There, there's a loss of elasticity will come in economics, supply and demand will come in, people are willing to pay so much, but not more. So we have to be able to, and that's where the PVC and some of the regulatory process would come in. Still, I think there's a place for that remaining in that area of communications. I have some thoughts is take too long here, I think but there there are certain ways of trying to incentivize that additional growth at the stake and participate in. Okay, I do want to mention one or not? Well, it's it's a program that I call it 21st century capital investment. It's a program that's that I introduced, maybe four years ago, now. It's been flying under the radar, because it's at a very large capital level 100 million. And when we took it down to 16 million capital investment, that's, that's too high for some of these smaller telecom parents. So today, we in fact, in committee, we were able to move it out at $1 million. So it's not a tax credit program. It's a tax deduction program. So there's an incentive on the back end for a company to do what they say they're going to do in terms of spread their own money, but have the state reward you for spending your money. And I think if we were a little bit more creative in that area, if we get it through at $1 million, get the administration to cooperate with us why we'd have one more tool, as we say one more arrow in the quiver. Right.
So now, last session, we introduced a bill called the clean infrastructure. I made reference to it earlier that attracted support in businesses and environmental advocacy organizations, including the National Resource Defense Council. So sort of emerging sometimes of people who don't all come together, you've set an ambitious goal to increase select vehicle adoption by 50% over the current forecast by 2030, which doesn't seem that far away. So can you talk about why that's important? Talk a little bit about the bill.
Yes, thank you. The intent of the bill is to expand the availability of charging stations Really? Yeah, it's when you when you start talking about electric vehicles and charging stations, you're getting into a chicken and an egg kind of argument. You want to sell more electric vehicles, but we don't have enough charging stations, we don't have enough charging stations, so we can't sell more vehicles. So where does the government play a role in that we don't manufacture automobiles. So our responsibility my thinks is more in the area of the charging stations. So we are trying to build would encourage electric companies to plan and position charging stations. After all, who provides the electric it's the ADCs or the the energy distribution companies. So we need we need them to work with us on positioning charging stations. Now I will tell you that and I was guilty of this Initially, the the perception was that charging stations would be at a mall, right? We go shopping, we plug in our electric car and go home, but that's really not where the need is. It's along the super It's along the the major transportation waters, it's along the turnpike, it's along Route 78. It's long route 80, and so forth. Where we're traveling long distances and when we're running short on that energy, we can stop and recharge. So the electric companies would be charged, required to provide a plan to ambitiously build out or more ambitiously build out charging stations.
So yeah, we're excited about it. The sink, you know, you talk about it also asked the administration to back the General Assembly to help support hydrogen cng and other lower carbon. Yeah, I
didn't get to that yet. But yeah, okay. There are a number of alternative energies. I remember a number of years ago, T. Boone Pickens, pretty much left his oil investments and moved to Canada and did hydrogen. I think there's a great opportunity there. There's a company I'm I, just outside of my district, actually, with the owner of the company lives in my district, I visited several times, where they do make hydrogen generators. And he ships all across the world. It's a arguably it's the most renewable form of energy there is you're taking water and you're creating hydrogen. He, he and some of his employees use automobiles that are Nissan's that are hydrogen driven. And they are now marketing hydrogen vehicles. In California, there is a full production facility for Nissan in Asia, making just hydrogen vehicles. So it's it's a technology, it's coming. It's not here yet in America. But it's I think it's one more than needs to be investigated and understood. I've had some people tell me Gee, that's that's gas under pressure, that's very dangerous. So is gasoline. You know, so is the propane tank in your backyard. So with every opportunity, there's also some risk, we need to understand how we minimize that and, and move the economy forward to accommodate it. So it's electric. It's maybe natural gas, certainly, hydrogen. And we have, you know, we have a couple world dominant or prominent manufacturers of gas products, their products. So here in Pennsylvania, maybe we should work with them and find out what they're doing and see how we adapt that to the automobile as well.
Shop and there's some there's some questions out there that I would love to be able to ask Senator,
lots of questions and some good comments as well, too. And great to have you on the show today. Senator, this is a really good one here from Dave DeMaio. I never really thought about this clip brought this up. So he wants to know what are the transitional solutions to lost revenue on gasoline tax when more e V's are on the road in the future?
Well, that we could talk a lot about that. The the formula that we have for gasoline tax, I don't think is adequate. I think it's going to have to be scrapped and rethought senator Langer Holtz, who chairs the Transportation Committee here and in the Senate, I know has a working group together doing that we're looking at what are the alternatives The governor has put together a group of I don't know 3040 people diverse industrial backgrounds and, and economic backgrounds to begin to think about it and figure out what do we do that's different, but cars becoming more efficient, other alternative sources coming into play? The the gas tax just is no longer adequate. Excellent.
So Tara Crowe as soon as she says she's the happy driver of a Chevy Volt. A lot of heat about the battery that could not be recycled. Is there plans for these batteries?
I visited with East pen manufacturing not too long ago and we were talking about the differences between the the normal automobile bill batteries and the batteries that go into electric vehicles. I'm not a scientist, I have to tell you a lot of the conversation probably went past me I felt like I was standing at a fire hydrant trying to get a drink. But the there is there are plans to try and come up with recycling of what do they call are they Nikon icad I forgot what what technology batteries they are in the rechargeable, but they it is difficult to recycle those right now. But we you know it's it's another opportunity to solve and you If the if the demand is created, we'll solve the problem. But we have to add that demand first.
Excellent. Do we read any of the comments here under your tweets?
Yeah. Why don't you just get him some of the comments? It's lithium. Thank you. Absolutely repurposed for many other things. Are there any other comments Thompson that you want to grab?
Yeah, here's actually a really great one from Steven to Frank says, another 351 companies already operating in Pennsylvania that currently serve the state's transportation supply chain that could with minimal investment transition to the EB supply chain, which is pretty interesting. Those same companies have had jobs over the past decade. So obviously, this is an opportunity for some growth here with east. That's great. So, you know, we're gonna respond to that center.
I was just gonna say in, in almost everything economic, there's always an upstream and downstream impact to the primary product. And the primary product happens to be the rechargeable vehicle. But as Jonathan just read from Mr. Dodd, Frank 351 companies that we know of, through our own research there, probably more but that could all benefit. And what happens to the state? Well, we're talking about more employment, we're talking about more tax revenues, we're talking about more disposable income for those families into the economy. So we all benefit in the end. And we get greener besides
right. So you know, on this program, Senator, we've actually we've hosted you know, over the last few minutes actually some of the world's largest manufacturers of electric buses, including flying electric and most recently new flyer, they they actually would sold a bunch of their buses to our port authority here of Pittsburgh. Are you hearing from Pennsylvania manufacturing companies that are selling into the Evie market space? Are you hearing anything? Like
mortain gentle it's part of those 351 companies that have joined our support of the bill. But I will tell you I was in Korea two years ago on a more personal trip with some Korean friends. And we did visit a manufacturer of the electric buses there they sell them a soul soul is almost entirely electric bikes now. And they're dynamite It was a great ride. Yeah, they ride just like a bus they they but they're home they're a lot greener and and better for the economy and better for the environment.
So right you know that the the new fliers Evie bus, by the way, it was, to me that here right here in the trauma, okay, Siemens, by Siemens, right in contact with sick. And so you know, we have the beginning of evidence of opportunity. So it's the engine, not the bus. So we have the beginnings of the opportunities here. That's what we're pretty excited about. And the What about the bill? Are there? Can you talk about, like, what can we do? What are the prospects of the bill passing this, this session? And if people are interested in learning more
about that?
You know, the longer a bill hangs around in Harrisburg, the the longer the opposition always has a chance to build their argument. And we're feeling a little bit of that right now. And we're still in some phase of negotiation, I would suggest. I don't think the bill is in its final form. I think we have some refining to do. More so around the electric, how do we recover the costs? And if the federal government was to come through with what they're suggesting, on the infrastructure bill, and electric vehicles, wouldn't it be nice if we could take the capital that we need, and rather put it on ratepayers be able to take it out of that stimulus program? So we're kind of watching, See what happens there. A little bit of hope, hopes, never a strategy, but it's as good as the other strategy we've got right now. So
So are there incentives, like in the bill that you've been thinking about, or maybe adding to it that incentivizes utilities to build more charging stations,
to the thought that you're that? We've talked a lot about that? It's been on the table, but we haven't really come up with a formula that works well, because it's more regionalized. If it was statewide, it's a whole lot easier to do that. But we have regional effect, and it affects one large company more than others. So as a consequence, we have to be careful that we don't give preferential
right So at so if people are interested in learning more about the legislation, is there someone on your team that they can reach out to?
It'll be David co Zack KZ ak. Okay. David can be reached at 717-787-3110 or D cosec. At pa sc n.gov.
Okay, great, you can see that were pretty excited about that. And it is all about,
I appreciate it. You know, we just got a recent good support out of the Philadelphia chamber as well. So, you know, we have we have two larger, great creations of vehicles and people in the state man in support from those areas.
Okay, and we're gonna, we're gonna be sharing some fact sheets, I think it'll be on the chat session, the call as well. So from nrdc.org, is there anything else that you're working on, Senator that you think we need to be cognizant of, and that we can be supportive about, particularly given economic development and prosperity and jobs and attracting companies to stay in to build their companies here as well as stay? Um,
it before? I do I know, Steve, to Frank and that picture, there is not Steve to Frank, you see that he's steeped to practice writing things in the chat for you. We had a great conversation over the last couple of days about renewing our reference around that operating loss. And trying to open that at least for one year, because we'd like to see it become more permanent in the tax code, where at what 40%, us is at 80% carry forward of a loss. So we'd like to work on that improve that. myself as enrollment have interest in doing bills on changing the way the CNI are actually reducing CNI. Nice? Yeah, I take it down to 699 percent over three years. I'm tired of hearing the the false claim of the Delaware loophole. I mean, it's it's people people choose to incorporate in Delaware, because we make it too expensive. In Pennsylvania, it's not illegal. It's we, we have told this because we encourage companies not to incorporate here, hey, you know, I don't know why you want to blame somebody else for our failure. So we've had that legislation for a number of years. And there's always pushback from revenue, that we're giving up too much money. But I, because we don't use dynamic modeling here in the state. We can't really judge what future potential we might realize. So I'm working with Senator Brown in appropriations, and we'd like to move forward with consideration for dynamic modeling is becoming a normal tool in our economic planning our financial planning here in the state.
Okay, well, I can't thank you enough for being as busy as you are. And all the committees that you're on all of them matter to all of us here. And so I think we've given people the links and ways to access that, and to, you know, help support the bill, and maybe give some input as well. So appreciate your leadership, appreciate you representing these interests, because they deeply matter to us, across Southwestern Pennsylvania, if not the entire state. So your work touches all of us.
And this matters to you. It matters to us. So it's a mutual thing.
Now, it's great. It's totally great. Thank you so much. Hats off. Thank you, Brian Kennedy, for getting center men here with us today and to your team. So thank you so much, Dave, these are these are matters that matter to us. So Jonathan, what do we have on the wraps? Next?
I am so excited for tomorrow's business as usual because we are talking about digital twins in healthcare. It's part of our Jewish health care foundation. I tech high touch series, our next installment we had answer stopping by as well as unlearn a really cool stuff. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Senator. Stay safe. Thank you for your leadership. See you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai