Andres Santiago
DemocraticQ1 PFAS chemicals are widely used in consumer products but have raised health concerns due to their persistence in the environment and humans, and some Pennsylvanian legislators are considering restrictions on its use, such as in House Bill 2145. Should Pennsylvania restrict PFAS in consumer products? What scientific evidence would you use to inform your decision?
The EPA has published its findings and they show the various possible harms to humans and the environment caused by different PFAs. I have not spent a great amount of time going over the individual studies but I am also not a chemist.
I defer to those with greater knowledge than I and trust that the researchers conducting these studies have the best interests of the people in mind.
I believe it is the duty of elected officials to protect the health of their constituents and would absolutely support banning the chemicals that have been shown to be health risks.
Q2 Measles vaccination rates in Pennsylvania have declined in recent years, from 95.5% in 2020 to 92.5% in 2025. At the same time, measles outbreaks have emerged across the state, with 62 confirmed cases in PA in 2026. As a policymaker, how do you approach engaging with communities that have concerns that center on infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety, and what policies, if any, would you support related to these issues?
Many people have been misled and, often to their detriment, no longer trust Scientists and Doctors. In order to ensure we maintain a low risk of these infectious and horrible diseases, we really need to ensure the education of ‘why’ is there when talking about immunization.
The sentiment is often that, it doesn’t feel like a benefit to the individual to be immunized, because they can still become sick. Effective immunization efforts require we all agree to protect each other through this mass immunization, even if our individual risk of infection or complications from illness is low.
I support funding for education related to immunization and disease prevention, would provide money for programs to increase immunization across the state, and further provide for research in reducing the spread of novel diseases.
Q3 There have been avian influenza outbreaks in Pennsylvania, with potential impacts on poultry and dairy operations, both industries that provide billions of dollars of economic value to the state. What policies, if any, do you support to strengthen the state’s preparedness and outbreak response? Are there specific strategies you would prioritize to protect farm workers, agricultural communities, and the broader public?
Mandatory testing and quarantine/removal procedures of affected animals are critical to reduce the harm these outbreaks have.
As we saw in Texas earlier this year through the screwworm outbreak, we must always be vigilant and ready to take action, even when we believe to have all but eradicated a threat to the health of livestock and our food supply.
Q4 Pennsylvania is the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas and nuclear energy, as well as the third-largest producer of coal, per the Energy Information Administration. In contrast, PA currently ranks 45th in the country in terms of wind, solar, and hydropower energy production. How do you think these energy sources should be distributed across PA’s energy production portfolio, and what policies, if any, would you support to facilitate this?
Natural Gas and Coal have been the main source of power generation throughout the history of our state. While these industries provide necessary revenue and maintain good jobs for Pennsylvanian’s, we need to be looking at our future.
I would push legislation to increase the amount of energy sourced from renewables like solar and wind so that we may reduce our reliance on carbon-based power generation, which causes pollution. These projects will produce their own jobs, and existing infrastructure for power distribution still requires workers to maintain it. In an ideal world i would want to see use of renewables for power generation up to 50% in the next 5 years, and look at increase that every year after.
Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania states, “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
It is literally written in our founding documents that we take care of our environment. Decreasing our use of fossil fuels for power generation is a furthering of the ideals set in place by those founders.
Q5 Pennsylvania has proposed more reporting, utility oversight, and zoning guidance for large data centers, along with shifting some generation, capacity, and reliability costs onto data center developers rather than ordinary ratepayers. How should the costs and benefits of large data center development be divided between developers and the public, and what requirements, if any, would you support on power, water, and public reporting before a project moves forward?
Developers should pay for the cost of power grid upgrades, or be able to provide their own power on site. We can tackle two issues at once and stipulate that they must be in the form of new sources of renewable energy. Once the new sources of capacity and generation are complete and the grid is reliable, we can work to shift some of the cost onto the public for maintenance of the systems over time. If these developers were not looking to build such massive structures, we would not need to upgrade our grid so much in terms of generation and capacity.
Water use is another issue that I don’t believe can be solved realistically. Closed loop cooling systems might work on some of the smaller scale centers, but those that plan on using more power than a small city could not reasonably do so, without some source of water nearby.
I support requiring developers to report monthly water and electricity use as well as effects to local habitats. If attached to the public power grid, it should be the expectation that these data centers would be the first ones to reduce power/and or water use, rather than the public, in the event the capacity is not enough to handle the demand at a given time.