General McLane grad Ali Zaidi works with Biden to find opportunities in climate change

Arriving in Erie County from Pakistan in winter, 5-year-old Ali Zaidi found the snow to be deep. But he found the warmth of the Edinboro-area people even deeper as they guided his family through an unfamiliar place.

"It was a community that was not rich but it was so generous," he said 28 years later. "And my takeaway from that — and it's a takeaway that I'll carry with me forever — is this just relentless desire to make everyone in the country feel the way my family felt when we showed up here, that anything was possible, that there was a place here for us."

Zaidi, who is President Joe Biden's deputy national climate adviser, said "My call to public service is really about just that, making sure that folks have a government that delivers for them and a system of public policy that is driving us relentlessly towards (a) society where everyone feels like they have a place, they feel like we've got their back and that they can make it here in America, no matter where they're coming from, no matter where they're growing up."

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Zaidi, who was picked by the president as an adviser in December, believes there's a hopeful story in America. And in the story that this 2004 General McLane High School graduate wants to help write, there is opportunity for both the country's economy and its environment. Reducing emissions creates jobs, and tackling the climate crisis also tackles racism.

"If we play this right, if we do it the right way, and that's what the president is focused on doing, then we lift ourselves up and advance the ball on so many critical areas of public policy," Zaidi said.

Presidential pick: Ali Zaidi, 2004 General McLane graduate, picked as Biden's deputy national climate adviser

Zaidi, a lawyer who received a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, previously served as deputy secretary for energy and environment in New York state and as its chairman of climate policy and finance.

He also had worked at the U.S. Department of Energy, as a senior economic and environmental policy official in the Obama administration, and as an adjunct professor at Stanford University.

'Brilliant mind'

"Ali is probably the most brilliant mind that I encountered in my teaching career," said Judy Scaletta, who taught at General McLane High School from 1986 to 2020.

Zaidi was in her AP calculus classes during his junior and senior years. She also worked with him through extracurricular activities. Scaletta, who lives in Washington Township, said they've stayed in touch, communicating at least a couple times in the past year.

"He is a true learner," Scaletta said via email, "wanting to know more, never afraid to ask how or why or what if. Ali is a man of integrity and has been since he was a student. He has always demonstrated compassion and concern for those around him, be it in the classroom, the community, or now the world."

As deputy national climate adviser under National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy, Zaidi said he gets to help bring together the government and stakeholders to come up with ideas. He said they're not only taking on the challenges of the climate crisis but also taking advantage of the opportunities that come with it, including the opportunity to strengthen the economy and improve public health.

Climate change and the economy

"Part of what really pulled me into this work is the economics of it and the impact on people and their lives," Zaidi said.

He said in a September interview via Zoom with the Erie Times-News that the president had traveled to Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, California, Idaho and Colorado communities that had experienced loss of money and lives from the change in climate.

"If you look at just last year, literally just 2020, the economic costs from extreme weather disasters tallied at $99 billion," Zaidi said. "So the economic costs are there but in the harsh reality, there's also a hopeful story and that's the story of the opportunity we have in front of us."

He said the first opportunity is strengthening communities in the face of climate challenges by investing in the resilience of the communities. Zaidi said every dollar invested in resilience yields $6 in benefits. Examples include raising roads in places where flooding is occurring more often and becoming more severe due to changes in climate.

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"You raise them a foot or two, that might cost you on the front end but it saves you down the line because you're not getting that road washed away time and time again. You're not risking human health and life as a result of your underinvestment," he said.

He also mentioned investing in technologies that reduce carbon pollution, including solar panels like those outside the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle State Park in Erie County.

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Solar panels not only reduce energy costs for homeowners and business owners, Zaidi said, but also create jobs for those developing and installing the projects.

He cited local companies including Solar Revolution, a residential and commercial solar installation company serving the greater Erie region, and Seaway Window, an Erie-based home improvement contractor that designs and manufactures many of the products it offers. He also highlighted Truck-Lite Co., which earlier this year announced that it would move its headquarters from Falconer, New York, to Penn State Behrend's Knowledge Park in Harborcreek Township.

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"So I think it's really important, and this is what the president has been trying to do is help people recognize when we talk about these clean energy jobs, they're not jobs on another planet, they're jobs in Erie, Pennsylvania," Zaidi said.

Biden's Build Back Better plan includes efforts to help companies invest in places like Erie, Zaidi said.

He said the Section 48C tax credit doesn't sound exciting but can provide a 30% investment tax credit for clean energy manufacturing facilities that might want to build a factory in someplace like Erie.

"That's a boost that allows people to dream that big dream and then show up and actually build that facility," he said.

In announcing the Build Back Better framework in late October, a White House statement called it "the largest effort to combat the climate crisis in American history.

"The framework will start cutting climate pollution now, and deliver well over one gigaton, or a billion metric tons, of greenhouse gas emissions reductions in 2030 — at least ten times larger than any legislation Congress has ever passed. The framework’s $555 billion investment represents the largest single investment in our clean energy economy in history."

Zaidi said the framework will set the United States on course to meet its climate targets, achieving a 50-52% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels in 2030."

Zaidi sees benefits for the environment and our collective financial health.

"You can call it climate policy but really in many ways it's economic policy for the 21st century," he said.

Young leader

Zaidi's family, which included his father, mother and younger brother, arrived in Edinboro in 1993. None still live in the area, he said.

Now 34, he remembers being in Jean Larson's first-grade class and Principal Annette Rilling "showing not just me but my family the ropes," he said.

Scaletta said it was no surprise to her that her former math student was named deputy national climate adviser to the president.

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"I was elated," she said. "Ali was very involved in student government in school and eventually became the (Pennsylvania) state student council president. He organized and hosted the state convention at GM when he was a senior. All of us knew that he would eventually work at the national level."

While he was a high school senior, Zaidi represented Pennsylvania in the 42nd annual U.S. Senate Youth Program in Washington, D.C., and had the opportunity to meet senators and President George W. Bush, according to a 2004 Erie Times-News story.

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Scaletta, whose husband, Rick Scaletta, is a former General McLane schools superintendent, said she's followed Zaidi's career.

"I always knew that wherever Ali went and whatever he did, he would make a difference," she said.

Zaidi credited both Scalettas with helping him to become who he is.

"I think about Mrs. Scaletta, Judy Scaletta's class, calculus, which I don't remember a ton of calculus, if we're being honest," Zaidi admitted. "But calculus is the study of change in math language. That's a skill set, a framework, a way of thinking about the world that's important for us to always be doing, thinking about how things are changing, getting grounded and analytical about that."

Zaidi said he was left with a different lesson from the Scalettas and the Edinboro community at large.

"You have a hard head and you think about things in a really rigorous way but you've got to have a soft heart," he said. "Those are values that I think inform, not just inform my public service but inspire it."

Involvement in politics

Zaidi is a Democrat, was a Republican. It's a long story, he said, and for a "retelling" he refers to a 2017 Vanity Fair article titled "Inside Trump's Cruel Campaign Against the U.S.D.A.'s Scientists."

The story includes the move of Zaidi's family from Pakistan to Edinboro. It shares that he later volunteered for the campaigns of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. It was during the Obama administration that Zaidi got a job with the White House's Office of Management and Budget. That was where he had his first real look at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and realized it had paid for the food he'd eaten as a child after coming to America, according to Vanity Fair.

Zaidi told the Erie Times-News that his initial foray into public policy was focused on children's issues, including health care and education.

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"What drew me to climate policy, in some ways, is the way it intersects with every other policy area," he said in the Zoom interview. "You think about it and it's literally hotter —like literally hotter — in places that were redlined when we had racist housing policy that redlined communities. So those solutions, like getting that pavement to be more permeable, like getting trees on those streets, like making those houses more sustainable, upgrading them, getting opportunity into those communities, it's not just a chance to tackle the climate crisis, it's a chance to tackle a legacy of racism.

"When you think about the retrofits we need to do to our buildings to reduce emissions, it's not just a chance to reduce the emissions from those buildings, it's a chance to create jobs at manufacturing plants like Seaway and (in) Erie. For me, that's what motivates me," Zaidi said.

Adviser to the president

Zaidi was one of 34 people honored this past summer by the Carnegie Corp. of New York on its annual list of Great Immigrants. They were recognized for having "enriched and strengthened our society and our democracy through their contributions and actions," according to a June news release.

Among Zaidi's list of accomplishments was "becoming the highest-ranking Pakistani American in President Biden’s administration."

It's not his only accolade.

Judy Scaletta said Zaidi had been selected as the GMHS Distinguished Alumnus for 2020 and was going to be recognized at the annual Lancer Legacy Academic Celebration. That celebration was never held because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In May, he was one of the speakers chosen for the Jefferson Educational Society's Global Summit XII, which was held online.

Jefferson Educational Society: A Conversation with Ali Zaidi from May 2021

"The goal of the Global Summit is to explore big ideas and topics with experts, scholars, and policymakers working at the national and international levels across a range of topics," said Ferki Ferati, president of the society in Erie. "When we heard the announcement that Ali Zaidi would be working as the deputy national climate adviser to President Biden, we immediately knew we wanted to invite him to Global Summit XII both to showcase his knowledge and experience and because it’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase one of Erie’s own, who’s having an impact at the national level."

He said that Zaidi has already achieved much at a young age.

"We look forward to seeing his future accomplishments and to keeping in touch with him to further explore his work throughout the years to come, as he inspires fellow Erieities to drive progress locally and beyond,” Ferati said.

Judy Scaletta thinks her former student is the right person for the job of climate adviser to the president.

"He is a thinker, a problem solver, and committed to making this a world in which we can all live," she said.

Contact Dana Massing at dmassing@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmassing.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Ali Zaidi, General McLane grad, serves as Biden's deputy national climate adviser