PA lawmakers cobble together budget - without needed boost for Bay, environment
News Article • • by Donna Morelli at Bay Journal
Four months past the deadline for approving a state budget, Pennsylvania lawmakers have finally agreed on how to pay for the $32 billion spending plan they adopted in July.
They did nothing, though, to bolster a budget that offers no new money for Chesapeake Bay restoration, drinking water protection and other environmental programs. In fact, they opened the door to siphoning money from special funds dedicated to conservation and pollution cleanup.
Delaware River featured in contest to promote watershed area
News Article • • by Margaret Wilson at NJ.com
The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), in collaboration with the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, and the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, has launched the "Delaware River Means" campaign (https://delawarerivermeans.com/).
This online photo and story entry contest focuses on the benefits and experiences around the Delaware River Watershed, aiming to engage residents of and visitors to the Watershed in appreciating its unique qualities.
Pa. lawmakers are masters of the Puniverse
News Article • • by John Baer at Philadelphia Inquirer
Just in terms of raw politics, our legislature deserves special notice.
In the small-ball world of Harrisburg, it consistently manages to protect itself and its donors, hence its members’ 90 percent-plus reelection rates.
And, with a little more than a week to go before the annual July 1 deadline for a new state budget, it appears poised to reprise its insulated ways.
Trump opens 100-day rally assailing media gathered for correspondents’ dinner
News Article • • by Steve Volk and Mark Berman at The Washington Post
President Trump marked his 100th day in office with an event touting what he called his administration's “historic progress,” even as his prime focus early in the campaign rally focused on his long-running antagonism with the news media.
About two hours before Trump was scheduled to start speaking, more than 100 Democratic and liberal activists gathered in a field across the street to express their opposition — in tones that quickly veered from jubilant to vehement and back again.
Josh McNeil, executive director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, joined the growing crowd early, saying he'd decided to come to “make a statement that President Trump did not earn a mandate to destroy the environment. No one voted for him to dismantle the EPA, but that has been a priority of his first 100 days.”
State Rep. Vitali slams influence of Marcellus Shale lobbyists
News Article • • by Linda Stein at The Delaware County Daily Times
State Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166 of Haverford, held a news conference Friday to highlight what he believes is the effect of lobbying money from the Marcellus Shale industry on legislators, claiming that it prevents “good public policy” from being enacted.
The natural gas industry spent $7.3 million in lobbying expenses in 2016 in Pennsylvania and $62.6 million since 2007, he said, citing research that was partially done by Common Cause and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania.
Trump’s first days fuel optimism among drillers, angst for environmentalists
News Article • • by Marie Cusick at StateImpact
In less than two weeks in office, President Donald Trump is working to usher in a new era for American energy companies. He’s begun rolling back efforts to combat climate change and is pushing for federal approval of controversial, new infrastructure projects — such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines.
There is guarded optimism among fossil fuel companies as they wait and see, along with everyone else, how Trump will deliver on his promises to boost American energy production. But his win has also been a major blow to many environmental groups, climate scientists, and others who worry about the administration’s disregard for science and policies aimed at protecting public health and the natural world. They’re now steeling themselves for a long, hard fight.
Pa. environmental groups join forces to increase advocacy
News Article • • by Marie Cusick at StateImpact
Two of Pennsylvania’s leading environmental groups are forming a new strategic alliance in response to what they call an “unprecedented anti-environmental political climate at the federal and state levels.”
PennFuture and the Conservation Voters of PA will combine policy, advocacy, and legal resources to mobilize voters around environmental issues and hold lawmakers accountable.
Conservation Voters of PA has staff of five, and will remain a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization with an affiliated PAC. PennFuture has a staff of 20 and is a 501(c)(3) organization, which bars it from participating in elections. But PennFuture President and CEO Larry Schweiger says the alliance builds on a model other organizations have used in other states.
PIPELINE POLITICS AT PLAY IN STATE FAVORING DEMS
News Article • • by Hannah Northey at E&E News
Pennsylvania is not only poised to be a clincher in a tight presidential election — the state is also at the center of a pitched national debate about energy and climate change.
Up and down the Keystone State ballot, candidates are running campaigns either pushing renewable energy or vowing to cut regulations to boost a struggling oil and gas industry.
Central to the debate: the role of domestic fuel from the state’s massive Marcellus Shale play.
“In the same way Pennsylvania is a swing state in the local election, it’s been crucial to the way the whole country deals with the environment and energy,” said Josh McNeil, executive director of the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. “The oil industry started in Pennsylvania, the coal industry ran the state for decades, and now it’s at the center of the argument around natural gas.”
Legislative scorecard finds waning support for environmental bills in 2015-16
News Article • • by Jon Hurdle at StateImpact
Pennsylvania’s state lawmakers voted less often for pro-environment legislation and more often for bills that would weaken environmental protection in the 2015-16 legislative session than they did the previous year, according to a tally published by four environmental groups on Wednesday.
An annual legislative scorecard from PennEnvironment, the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania found that the environmental voting record of the House as a whole dropped to 35 percent from 48 percent in the 2013-14 session, while the Senate’s environmental record declined to 38 percent from 41 percent.
Bills would permit commercial development in Pa. state parks
News Article • • by Don Hopey at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pennsylvania's award-winning parks could be better if golf courses, hotels, inns, restaurants, amusement parks, water slides, and other outdoor sports facilities were available in them, according to two state representatives backing bills that would open the tent flap to such development.
Rep. Brian Ellis (R., Butler) wants to amend the 1995 Conservation and Natural Resources Act to allow development of those recreational and lodging amenities, along with the establishment of a new, politically appointed Public-Private State Park Partnership Board to propose and oversee development projects.