Clean-Energy Cuts Decried at DeSales University Forum by Mark Pattison

Many would consider the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, as the culmination of the “Stop the Steal” movement. But to find the roots of “stop the steel”—with two e’s—you have to look to decades before, as the steel mills that kept America rolling for the better part of a century slowed down, stalled out, and gave up the ghost, with companies shutting down and untold numbers of workers displaced.

Nowhere may this have been felt more painfully than in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, once home to Bethlehem Steel. The company’s steel helped assemble some of the United States’ most iconic buildings, bridges, and dams. It put the country on war footing in both world wars and employed tens of thousands of workers in the region. But early in the 21st century, it creaked its way into bankruptcy, then liquidation.

But the promise of a better future in the valley, this time through clean energy projects, was dashed with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut funding for $500 billion in clean energy projects, including some where work was mostly completed.

“Our children deserve a clean and healthy future, and we think this reversal is stealing from our children’s future,” said Oblate Father Kevin Nadolski, vice president for mission at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, during an August 27 forum, “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” held on the college campus. The program was mounted by In Solidarity, which assists Catholic leaders in communicating the church’s social mission and has been bridging faith and labor groups.

“Clean energy jobs are the next great opportunities for people in the valley,” said John Werkheiser of Allentown, about 10 miles from the college campus, who bargained contracts for 30 years for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776. “It’s our families, our livelihoods, and our children’s future on the line,” he added. “Pennsylvania workers are ready to build the clean energy future, but we will not let politicians try to steal it from us.”

His words were echoed by Angela Ferritto, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

“I was raised Catholic and the Ten Commandments was our yardstick,” she said. “They are not just trimming budgets, they are stealing. They are stealing from workers, from families, from generations yet to come. They are taking away our future.”

In Pennsylvania alone, according to Ferritto, “more than 100 clean energy projects are at risk.” The jobs those projects bring, she added, are “pathways to careers with dignity and stability . . . and a safer climate for our children.” Instead, she said lawmakers in Washington “rob our communities of the infrastructure to build tomorrow.

“Working people in Pennsylvania will not be robbed of our future. From solar to wind, to modernizing our grid.”

“This is our work. Our members have the skill, the experience, and the integrity to do the job the right way,” said Paul Anthony, president of the Lehigh Valley Building Trades, and business manager and financial secretary for an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local in the Lehigh Valley.

When it comes to taking away the future of the region’s children, “we will not stand by and let that happen,” Anthony declared. “This is about more than jobs. It’s about justice, it’s about dignity.”

“We face two crises,” Father Nadolski said. “Our students feel the ecological crisis very acutely, and the wildfires and hurricanes and environmental toxins make this crisis known to us every day. The other crisis is more below the surface. It’s taken for granted. It’s an economic crisis in which 11 million children live in poverty in our country. Wages have been stagnant for decades, and 60 percent of Americans say they could not meet a single emergency expense of $1,000.”

The axing of clean energy investments, he added, only makes the situation worse.

“For many decades the Catholic Church has used the ‘See, Discern, Act’ method,” Father Nadolski said. “First we see what’s happening, we talk to others and learn. Then we discern the realities by applying the wisdom of our great faith tradition. Lastly, we take action to help God’s values of justice and dignity take root in our world.”

The method isn’t restricted to Catholics.

Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem needed a new HVAC system to replace its gas furnaces. “It looked like the lifetime of two of them were coming to a close,” the Rev. Janel Rice, the senior pastor, who grew up in Bethlehem, said after the forum. “We made the decision to go to an all-electric [system]. It’s variable refrigerant flow. It’s energy-efficient and we use clean energy.”

“One of our committees is called Care for Creation, and that played a bit in our decision to opt for the green option,” she added. “It was definitely driven by our laypeople, who saw the need to balance both physical improvements but also doing so in an environmentally conscious way. . . . That was a proud moment.”

The congregants knew going in it would be costlier: $1.6 million for the 900-member church. “We also discovered during Covid that we had no ventilation in the sanctuary,” which was built in 1806, Rev. Rice said. To date, $1.4 million of that has been secured, much with the help of a capital campaign, she noted.

Both Rev. Rice’s father and grandfather worked for Bethlehem Steel. Her father was a metallurgist working in Lehigh, but “my grandfather was not a skilled worker, he was working in a machine shop. He was affected by strikes and periods of unemployment. I remember hearing stories about that,” she said.

Rev. Rice added, “It’s been interesting to see the wider community of Bethlehem both be proud of our heritage but understand some of the struggles of laborers in that era. Just as we try to do within the church and extend a deeper sense of the history we have, working with indigenous people and understanding our history, I think it’s the same thing for our community.” ♦

Image: From left, Angela Ferritto, Rev. Janel Rice, and Fr. Kevin Nadolski speak at the “Thou Shalt Not Steal” forum at DeSales University on August 27, 2025. Photo by Eric Bartoz