CONSERVATION VOTERS OF PENNSYLVANIA, PENNFUTURE ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP
Press Release •
HARRISBURG, PA - January 10, 2017 – Two of the state’s leading environmental organizations, PennFuture and Conservation Voters of PA, announced the formation of a strategic alliance enhancing the groups’ power to respond to today’s unprecedented anti-environmental political climate at the federal and state levels.
By combining the policy, advocacy and legal resources of PennFuture with the political strength and skill of Conservation Voters of PA, the partnership expands the ability of both organizations to promote policies that advance clean energy and protect natural resources. Together, the groups will bring expanded capacity to hold legislators accountable, mobilize voters, and shine a spotlight on candidates’ records on clean air, water and energy issues.
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.”
8,467 PENNSYLVANIANS TELL THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION TO REJECT PERMITS TO THE PENNEAST PIPELINE
Press Release •
PHILADELPHIA, PA - On the heels of a new report issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expressing “significant concerns” about the proposed PennEast pipeline’s environmental impact, today a coalition of eight national and state organizations submitted comments signed by 8,467 individuals to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) opposing the project.
Eighty-five percent of the PennEast pipeline is slated to cut through the Delaware River watershed, and could affect the drinking water of approximately 8 million people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Under the Clean Water Act the DEP has the authority to analyze all proposed energy infrastructure to ensure Pennsylvania’s waterways are protected, and has twice asked for public comment on its water quality certification permitting process. National organizations CREDO, Daily Kos, and the League of Conservation Voters joined with state allies Clean Air Council, Clean Water Action, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, PennFuture, and Sierra Club of Pennsylvania to mobilize their members during this latest public comment period.
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.
Report: gas industry spent $8 million lobbying Pa. legislature in 2015
News Article • • by Marie Cusick, StateImpact at https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2016/06/20/report-gas-industry-spent-8…
The natural gas industry spent $8 million lobbying Pennsylvania politicians last year, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan government reform group, Common Cause/PA, and the Conservation Voters of PA.
The project, called MarcellusMoney, is an ongoing effort to track the political influence of Pennsylvania’s gas drillers, who have spent $55.9 million on lobbying since 2007.