Post by melody on Feb 12, 2013 17:29:41 GMT -5
COALITION UNVEILS 2013 ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES FOR LEGISLATORS
By Matt Hess, PLS
1/29/13
A coalition of environmental groups that included Clean Water Action, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, PennEnvironment, PennFuture, and the Sierra Club of Pennsylvania, held a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda today to unveil the 2013 Environmental Guidelines for Pennsylvania Legislators. The guidelines address five key issues: funding for environmental agencies, public transportation, renewable energy, Marcellus Shale drilling, and green building.
Josh McNeil, speaking on behalf of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, explained that the guidelines outline the environmental issues likely to be discussed in 2013 and offers legislators recommendations.
Regarding environmental agency funding, McNeil stated “the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Delaware River Basin Commission lack the capacity to actively protect our air, water and land; budgets have been cut for these agencies for more than decade and they are woefully underfunded.” He added “if a legislator believes he or she is pro-environment that legislator needs to work tirelessly to restore funding to these agencies and to do so not through monetary tricks by raiding already established funds like the Oil and Gas Lease Fund but do so with a dedicated source of revenue.”
Jeff Schmidt, Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, discussed the issue of renewable energy. “Solar and wind energy provides thousands of jobs in the Commonwealth but the law that it is place that supports these clean energy sources is under attack by the dirty natural gas and the garbage incineration industries,” he stated. “Our legislature should be working to protect the public health by increasing clean wind and solar energy and avoid weakening our Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards law.”
McNeil addressed the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling. “Currently the local zoning provisions of Act 13 have been overturned by Pennsylvania courts and that is still being appealed,” he stated. “We expect that if it is not appealed, the governor and allies in the natural gas industry may attempt to reopen case with legislation that would re-preempt local zoning rights. We believe that citizens have an absolute right to make decisions about where and when drilling happens at the local level and the legislature should stay away from those rights.”
Steve Stroman, Policy Director for PennFuture, emphasized the importance of citizen engagement. “Last year when the governor proposed permanently eliminating funding for the Keystone Fund we saw a tremendous response from citizens all across Penn’s Wood,” he stated. “This public outcry was felt across the political and ideological spectrum in Harrisburg and the money for Pennsylvania’s flagship conservation program was unanimously restored. This type of citizen activism is vital to our work today and the issues we are discussing.”
On the issue of green buildings, Stroman explained that Sen. John Rafferty (R-Montgomery) and Rep. Cherelle Parker (D-Philadelphia) introduced legislature requiring construction projects for state-owned buildings to meet high-performance green building standards. “Building smart, energy-efficient public buildings will reduce energy use and pollution, create jobs, and reduce costs for Pennsylvania taxpayers,” he stated.
David Masur, Executive Director of PennEnvironment, discussed the issue of public transportation and maintaining roads. “Pennsylvania desperately needs funding for increased public transportation that will reduce our carbon footprint and our reliance on foreign oil,” he stated. “Our platform when it comes to public transportation is very simple. Number one we have to make sure we have a vibrant funded public transportation system. Number two we have to have a fix it first mentality when it comes to repairing roads and bridges and that means not using taxpayer money to build the next bridge or road to nowhere.”
The coalition then responded to questions from the media.
The legislature and the governor have not had an appetite to address many of these issues, has your strategy changed to accomplish any of your goals?
Masur stated “we’re optimists here in the environmental community. I think the reality is that the public cares deeply about these issues; the public is watching debate around environmental policies. We know that our opponents in elections spend millions of dollars to defeat pro-environmental candidates and in many cases candidates who supported the environment won. We hope that as the legislature looks toward the next election cycle they know that these are issues voters care about and I think we have to come back and make the case more strongly than ever before. There are champions on both sides of the aisle on many of these issues. We’ll try to work with the governor’s staff to do some of these things that really are low-hanging fruit.”
By Matt Hess, PLS
1/29/13
A coalition of environmental groups that included Clean Water Action, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, PennEnvironment, PennFuture, and the Sierra Club of Pennsylvania, held a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda today to unveil the 2013 Environmental Guidelines for Pennsylvania Legislators. The guidelines address five key issues: funding for environmental agencies, public transportation, renewable energy, Marcellus Shale drilling, and green building.
Josh McNeil, speaking on behalf of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, explained that the guidelines outline the environmental issues likely to be discussed in 2013 and offers legislators recommendations.
Regarding environmental agency funding, McNeil stated “the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Delaware River Basin Commission lack the capacity to actively protect our air, water and land; budgets have been cut for these agencies for more than decade and they are woefully underfunded.” He added “if a legislator believes he or she is pro-environment that legislator needs to work tirelessly to restore funding to these agencies and to do so not through monetary tricks by raiding already established funds like the Oil and Gas Lease Fund but do so with a dedicated source of revenue.”
Jeff Schmidt, Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, discussed the issue of renewable energy. “Solar and wind energy provides thousands of jobs in the Commonwealth but the law that it is place that supports these clean energy sources is under attack by the dirty natural gas and the garbage incineration industries,” he stated. “Our legislature should be working to protect the public health by increasing clean wind and solar energy and avoid weakening our Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards law.”
McNeil addressed the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling. “Currently the local zoning provisions of Act 13 have been overturned by Pennsylvania courts and that is still being appealed,” he stated. “We expect that if it is not appealed, the governor and allies in the natural gas industry may attempt to reopen case with legislation that would re-preempt local zoning rights. We believe that citizens have an absolute right to make decisions about where and when drilling happens at the local level and the legislature should stay away from those rights.”
Steve Stroman, Policy Director for PennFuture, emphasized the importance of citizen engagement. “Last year when the governor proposed permanently eliminating funding for the Keystone Fund we saw a tremendous response from citizens all across Penn’s Wood,” he stated. “This public outcry was felt across the political and ideological spectrum in Harrisburg and the money for Pennsylvania’s flagship conservation program was unanimously restored. This type of citizen activism is vital to our work today and the issues we are discussing.”
On the issue of green buildings, Stroman explained that Sen. John Rafferty (R-Montgomery) and Rep. Cherelle Parker (D-Philadelphia) introduced legislature requiring construction projects for state-owned buildings to meet high-performance green building standards. “Building smart, energy-efficient public buildings will reduce energy use and pollution, create jobs, and reduce costs for Pennsylvania taxpayers,” he stated.
David Masur, Executive Director of PennEnvironment, discussed the issue of public transportation and maintaining roads. “Pennsylvania desperately needs funding for increased public transportation that will reduce our carbon footprint and our reliance on foreign oil,” he stated. “Our platform when it comes to public transportation is very simple. Number one we have to make sure we have a vibrant funded public transportation system. Number two we have to have a fix it first mentality when it comes to repairing roads and bridges and that means not using taxpayer money to build the next bridge or road to nowhere.”
The coalition then responded to questions from the media.
The legislature and the governor have not had an appetite to address many of these issues, has your strategy changed to accomplish any of your goals?
Masur stated “we’re optimists here in the environmental community. I think the reality is that the public cares deeply about these issues; the public is watching debate around environmental policies. We know that our opponents in elections spend millions of dollars to defeat pro-environmental candidates and in many cases candidates who supported the environment won. We hope that as the legislature looks toward the next election cycle they know that these are issues voters care about and I think we have to come back and make the case more strongly than ever before. There are champions on both sides of the aisle on many of these issues. We’ll try to work with the governor’s staff to do some of these things that really are low-hanging fruit.”