Harrisburg (June 5, 2018) --  The men and women who are building Pennsylvania’s natural gas energy infrastructure are taking their stories to elected officials in Harrisburg with a series of digital and radio ads in support of lobbying efforts.

“Supporting clean natural gas isn’t about politics,” Mike Sinopoli Sr., a natural gas worker and member of LIUNA, says in one ad. “It’s about jobs and protecting our environment. And everybody should support that.”

The Mid-Atlantic Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, an affiliate of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – is funding the outreach effort. The ads are scheduled to run through the June session of the General Assembly.

“Natural gas is clean energy and a crucial bridge fuel to a carbon free economy,” said LIUNA Vice President and Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager Dennis Martire. “We want to make sure elected officials and their constituents know that when built with skilled, union workers, natural gas is a win for working men and women, for Pennsylvania’s economy and for our planet.”

The rank-and-file workers participating in the ad effort are from across the state, including Pittsburgh, Wind Ridge, Chester, Plains and Kulpmont.

The ads will run as videos and banners on digital and social media in 10 state Representative districts and 12 state Senate districts, as well as in metro Harrisburg. In addition, the workers will be featured in radio ads airing on Harrisburg’s top two stations.

Leaders – from former President Obama to the Environmental Defense Fund to the Union of Concerned Scientists – consider natural gas to be the ideal bridge fuel to a no-carbon future. In fact, clean natural gas accounts for recent reductions in U.S. carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In addition to being cleaner fuel, natural gas infrastructure creates thousands of good jobs.

According to a study by ICF International, a global consulting and technology services firm, the natural gas industry is connected to 178,100 jobs in Pennsylvania, or 3.1 percent of all jobs in the state. Their report also determined that natural gas infrastructure contributed about $8.16 billion in economic activity in the state in 2015, the year studied.

When done right – with highly-trained, skilled union workers – natural gas pipelines are the safest and most efficient way to transport the fuel. LIUNA’s training programs have already provided nearly 10,000 hours of pipeline safety instruction to workers in the state.

Cheaper natural gas has also helped Pennsylvania residents keep the lights on. According to a University of Pennsylvania report, 79,000 fewer state residents in 2016 received shut-off notices due to use of Marcellus Shale natural gas.

Each of the radio and video ads feature a Pennsylvania natural gas workers’ personal perspective.

Sinopoli, of Kulpmont, speaks of having worked in the industry for 12 years and how his son and daughter have followed in his footsteps. “When I told my friends from high school that I was going to be a pipeliner they were surprised,” his daughter, Kaylene Sinopoli, said. She encourages other women to join the workforce. “I can support myself and help our planet and I feel good about that.”

Jennifer Washney, a Plains LIUNA member and natural gas worker featured in the ads, agrees. “It’s just like a big brotherhood and sisterhood,” she says, noting that she too is concerned about her community and environment. “My family and I live in this community. So our environment is really important to me.”

Martire said the union will continue to feature the stories of natural gas workers in Pennsylvania and other states in the region.

“There has been a lot of rhetoric and political posturing over pipelines and natural gas,” he said. “Working people – men and women who live here, who raise families here, who vote here and want to see a better future – have a way of cutting through the talk and the politics.”

The ads can be seen and heard at CleanNaturalGas.org.

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The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Mid-Atlantic Region represents more than 40,000 working men and women predominantly in the construction industry in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina