Energy & Environment

COMMENTARY

Federal judge tosses Pa. kids’ challenge to Trump’s climate change policies | Friday Morning Coffee

BY: - February 22, 2019

Justice is not only blind, it is occasionally cranky, too.

Pa. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, Michigan Dem push EPA to regulate PFAS in drinking water

BY: - February 21, 2019

U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich., wrote for help to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

Bipartisan bill would expand access to solar energy in Pennsylvania

BY: - February 19, 2019

A bill backed by a diverse collection of lawmakers — from urban Democrats to rural Central Pennsylvania Republicans — would let homeowners buy into shared solar power projects far away from home. The legislation, HB 531, would allow people living in properties unfit for solar — because of shade, direction, or size — to purchase […]

COMMENTARY

Here’s what ‘Green New Deal’ advocates can learn from the 2009 stimulus | Opinion

BY: - February 16, 2019

An ambitious carbon tax could promote broad and deep economy-wide emission reductions today and the far-reaching innovation necessary to transform the energy foundation of the U.S. economy.

COMMENTARY

How many times are we going to bailout Three Mile Island? | Opinion

BY: - February 16, 2019

If consumers already paid to build Pennsylvania’s nuclear plants, and then paid off the debt on the nuclear plants, why does Three Mile Island need yet another bailout?

State lawmakers question Wolf admin’s plan to fund environmental agencies

BY: - February 14, 2019

Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee made the heads of Pennsylvania’s chief environmental agencies defend a controversial funding shift Thursday. In his 2019-20 budget, Gov. Tom Wolf proposed reducing general fund spending on the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources by $62 million. The shortfall would be covered […]

Should lawmakers prop up Pennsylvania’s struggling nuclear industry? The debate, explained

BY: - February 14, 2019

When you turned on the lights in your house this morning, there’s a good chance the electricity came from a nuclear power plant. Nuclear energy has been Pennsylvania’s largest energy source for decades. But the industry says it’s struggling to maintain its foothold as energy demand flatlines and natural gas prices plummet. The issue Two […]

Bucks County GOP U.S. Rep. Fitzpatrick joins with Dems to snub Trump on climate change

BY: - February 9, 2019

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was the lone Republican in a group of 59 House lawmakers supporting a symbolic rebuke of President Trump’s international climate change policies. Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican whose Bucks County-based 1st District is a key electoral battleground in 2020,  joined dozens of Democrats to introduce a resolution opposing Trump’s […]

Pa. government presses pause on permits for Mariner East 2 pipeline parent company

BY: - February 8, 2019

Pennsylvania’s state environmental protection agency is temporarily blocking permits from Energy Transfer Partners in response to numerous complaints about the company’s Mariner East 2 pipeline and an September explosion in Beaver County. “There has been a failure by Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries to respect our laws and our communities,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in […]

‘Not a climate bill’: Environmental group pans proposed nuclear deal

BY: - February 7, 2019

Environmental groups are emerging as early critics of a proposed bailout of Pennsylvania’s nuclear industry, a policy that state lawmakers are expected to debate early this year. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a New York-based environmental advocacy group, sent a letter to Pennsylvania lawmakers last week asking them to reject any policy fix for […]