PGW gets federal money to replace aging gas mains in Philly

This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.

From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.

Philadelphia Gas Works is getting $125 million in federal money to replace 66 miles of its aging cast-iron pipes.

Federal officials announced the latest round of the funding — $40 million — at a PGW operations center in Northeast Philadelphia Tuesday. The city-owned gas utility has already secured $85 million in grants to speed up pipe replacements.

“We’re tackling the climate crisis at the same time as we’re lowering costs for families, as we’re creating jobs filled by union workers,” said Ali Zaidi, President Biden’s national climate advisor.

Old pipes can crack and leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

Gas leaks are also dangerous. In 2019, two people died when a leak from a more than 90-year-old gas main caused an explosion that destroyed five row houses in South Philly. Several years earlier, a PGW worker died trying to patch a high-pressure gas main break in Philly’s Tacony section.

In a 2022 filing with state utility regulators, PGW said more than half of its over 3,000 miles of gas mains were considered “at-risk,” or made of cast iron or unprotected steel mains. In a typical year, PGW replaces around 30 miles of cast-iron mains.

The federal grants help the utility fund its existing pipe replacement plans faster, which the utility estimates will save the typical Philadelphia household hundreds of dollars in the coming years. The projects will be focused in neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates, the utility said.

“It saves our customers money, because if we’re replacing that pipe with dollars that come from the federal government, instead of the ratepayers pockets, that’s helpful,” said PGW President and CEO Seth Shapiro.

The money comes from a natural gas distribution system modernization grant program created by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Philadelphia has received the maximum amount under the program, as well as the largest amount to date nationwide, said U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown.

“Congress … told us to focus on underserved communities, the highest risk pipe, the biggest reductions in methane leaks,” he said. “Philly really fit each of those categories.”

PGW estimates replacing the 66 miles of cast-iron pipes with modern materials will prevent the release of 412 metric tons of methane. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 2,700 gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year.

Pipeline leaks make up the majority of the utility’s direct greenhouse gas emissions. But more emissions come from the use of PGW gas in homes, commercial buildings and industrial facilities. In 2019, emissions from the use of PGW gas in buildings and industry were around 10 times higher than emissions from pipeline losses, according to city emissions inventory data presented in the utility’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction report.

Climate activists with the group POWER Interfaith have pushed the utility to make a plan to transition away from a business model centered around fossil fuels. The group has opposed PGW spending money to expand its gas pipelines.

“We need rapid transition to affordable, renewable energy,” said POWER Climate Justice Director Rabbi Julie Greenberg. “Failure to plan now will result in extreme heating, flooding, severe financial burdens, and to tell you the truth, civilizational disruption.”

Zaidi said in this case, it’s not an “either-or trade-off” between investing in fossil fuel infrastructure and reducing emissions in homes.

“We are as a country racing ahead on electrification … but at the same time, we’ve got to meet the demand of the appliances and the homes that are on the system,” he said. “We can’t continue to perpetuate an infrastructure that puts homes and families at risk — that continues to pump methane into the sky.”