How flooding disproportionately hurts Lehigh Valley’s minority communities
News Article • • by Maria Ocasio at The Morning Call
Climate change will intensify flood risks across the Lehigh Valley. It will be our most disadvantaged residents — in many cases, predominantly people of color — whose homes and families will be caught in harm’s way.
Tropical Storm Isaias served as a wake-up call for my own family.
As the storm tore through the region, my brother Raymond quickly found himself caught in floodwaters along Allentown’s Basin Street. His 2007 Jeep Commander stranded and destroyed, he fortunately escaped safely.
Poll from environmental group says Pennsylvanians support more regulations on fracking
News Article • • by Ryan Deto at Pittsburgh City Paper
Katie Blume, political director for Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, says the poll shows that a shift is occurring among voters, where reigning in fracking is becoming more popular than not.
“I think there is a shift. I think after the Attorney General investigation, people’s eyes have been open,” she says, referring to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s grand jury indictment against fracking companies who have polluted the state.
Local lawmakers recognized as environmental champions
News Article •
Five Chester County lawmakers recently joined dozens of residents virtually to discuss the state of the environment.
The lawmakers discussed their critical actions to protect Pennsylvania’s air and water and combat climate change — and how they stood up against polluters who would put their profits over environmental protection.
Congress must save transit from COVID collapse
News Article • • by Josh McNeil at Bucks Courier Times
As Congress debates new legislation to provide relief to communities devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential that Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation prioritize additional funding to head off a brewing crisis that threatens the future of public transit. Despite tremendous operational and safety challenges, our tenacious transit workers have put themselves on the line to ensure that the people staffing our hospitals, grocery stores, and other essential businesses could continue getting to work to provide life-sustaining services.
The road to a COVID-19 recovery has to include transit funding
News Article • • by Josh McNeil and Ryan Boyer at Pennsylvania Capital-Star
While in search of roads to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania’s roads and transit systems are suffering.
Transit agencies such as SEPTA and PATCO in the Southeast, the Port Authority in Allegheny County, and Red Rose Transit Authority in Lancaster have enabled doctors, nurses, supermarket employees and other essential employees to get to work.
NEW PENNSYLVANIA ENVIRONMENTAL SCORECARD REVEALS UNPRECEDENTED LEGISLATIVE ASSAULT ON CLEAN AIR AND WATER
Press Release •
The 2019-2020 Pennsylvania Environmental Scorecard compiles the most crucial environmental votes that the Pennsylvania General Assembly took during the current legislative session. The scorecard is available at www.conservationpa.org/scorecard.
BENNINGHOFF’S CONCERNING ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD
News Article • • by Lynne Heritage at Centre Daily Times
Kerry Benninghoff has been in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the last 24 years. He has amassed an abysmal record on the environment during this time, despite representing a district that depends on a healthy environment to support the leading industries, agriculture and tourism.
Seeking to block a carbon tax, the House fell short of a veto-proof majority. How?
News Article • • by Stephen Caruso at Pennsylvania Capital-Star
It’s a political trick as old as time in Harrisburg: Force Democrats into a tight spot by pitting environmentalists against labor.
The tactic was used this session, when the General Assembly passed a multi-million dollar tax credit to expand the use of natural gas in manufacturing. And it came up again Wednesday, when the House voted 130-71 to prevent Gov. Tom Wolf from entering an interstate compact that aims to cut carbon emissions from power plants...
Katie Blume, political director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, said that it needn’t be a zero-sum game between jobs and the planet.
“I think voters are smart enough to realize that it is possible to fight for a healthy and clean environment while still encouraging family sustaining jobs,” Blume said.
Statement from CVPA staff and board: We stand among those fighting for racial justice
Press Release •
Our commitment to clean air and water comes from our desire for all Pennsylvanians to be healthy and safe.
Yet marginalized communities, including far too many of our Black and Latinx neighbors, not only face the threat of pollution that sickens their communities at a far higher rate than our white neighbors, but also face the daily threat of unjust institutional racism and harassment, violence, and murder at the hands of the police.
Conservation Voters of PA highlights three endorsed Pittsburgh state House candidates
News Article • • by Ryan Deto at Pittsburgh City Paper
Environmental policy is an area where state legislators have considerable sway. With an EPA controlled by President Donald Trump that is set on rolling back regulations, a lot of environmental protections in Pennsylvania currently fall to elected officials in Harrisburg.
With that in mind, statewide environmental group Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania (CVPA) has endorsed three Democratic candidates for state House seats in Allegheny County. Not only do legislators from the area vote on important environmental bills in Harrisburg, the Pittsburgh area is on the front line of air pollution and faces significant environmental impacts from the fracking industry, which has a large footprint in Southwestern Pennsylvania.