Full Title: A Roadmap for Industrial Decarbonization in Pennsylvania
Author(s): Joe Goodenbery, Eliasid Animas, Christina Cilento, Jennifer Gorman, Nina Hebel, and Joe Walderman
Publisher(s): Strategen
Publication Date: February 12, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
In Pennsylvania, the industrial sector has been a central economic driver for more than a century, producing critical
goods, including steel, cement, and glass, that helped build and grow the modern U.S. economy. Today, manufacturing
contributes more than $113 billion in state domestic product and provides 11% of the commonwealth’s jobs. This
significant manufacturing footprint means that industry is responsible for one-third of Pennsylvania’s GHG emissions,
the largest-emitting sector in the commonwealth’s economy. While state policies, research and demonstration
projects, and other ongoing efforts will help move Pennsylvania toward its goal of reducing economy-wide GHG
emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2050, emissions from the industrial sector are still projected to increase in
the future, absent further actions.
To chart a path toward Pennsylvania’s goals, Strategen developed an industrial decarbonization roadmap through
2050. This pathway addresses emissions from all industrial subsectors, including fossil fuel extraction and delivery,
iron and steel, minerals (e.g., cement, lime), chemicals, and refining, among others. To address emissions from these
sectors, the roadmap explores the role of five major decarbonization levers: energy efficiency, material efficiency,
electrification, fuel switching, and carbon capture and storage. In some circumstances, production ramp-downs
and facility and equipment retirements have also been considered. Pursuing the decarbonization pathways outlined
in this report would reduce carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from 2019 baseline levels by 18.2 million
metric tons (MMT) by 2030 and 72.6 MMT by 2050, resulting in an 84% reduction. Across all subsectors,
transitioning from fossil fuel combustion to electrification enables roughly half of the total emissions reductions,
followed by efficiency, carbon capture, and fuel switching.