Penn State team delays Harrisburg greenhouse-gas inventory after utility data snag; proposes solar, EV and nature-based studies

Penn State researchers told Harrisburg City Council on an evening meeting that the city's updated greenhouse-gas inventory for 2023 is nearly complete but remains delayed because the electric utility supplied consumption data by ZIP code, not by the city's jurisdictional boundary.

The Local Climate Action Program (LCAP) team, led by Brandy (Penn State LCAP co-director) and Peter Buck (co-director), said they are working with the utility, PPL, to disaggregate residential, commercial and industrial electricity figures so the inventory will not overstate Harrisburg’s emissions. "The utility company has given us your electricity data by ZIP code. And as you can see, these things do not line up at all," Brandy said, adding that the program will not present inventory results until the numbers can be trusted.

The inventory is the fall-semester product of Penn State courses the LCAP program runs; students then use that data in spring to…