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Metcalfe to join Pennsylvania panel that reviews plan for climate action
One of the General Assembly’s most vocal climate change skeptics has been tapped to review state plans to combat rising global temperatures.
Pa. Health department has collected just 160 complaints on oil and gas production in nearly a decade
Despite a natural gas boom and health concerns over drilling from environmentalists, the state Department of Health has received just 160 complaints related to drilling over the last decade. On Thursday, Stephanie Hasanali, of the department’s Bureau of Epidemiology, briefed a state oversight committee charged with approving environmental regulations on the data the agency has […]
Southeast Republicans, unified Dems in the House find common ground: opposing mandatory regulation slashing
Environmental allies celebrated a rare Harrisburg victory this week when the newly emboldened Democratic caucus in the state House, with the help of a few Republican holdouts, voted down a GOP bill to slash state regulations. Eight Republicans, joined by every Democratic member, voted against a bill that would have formed an office of the […]
Top Senate Republicans aren’t happy with Pa.’s environmental regulators. Here’s why
Two senior Republican senators want an appellate court to force the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue new clean water standards for a byproduct of coal mining. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee Chairman Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, filed the suit in late March in Commonwealth Court. […]
Environmental proponents to state Senate panel: Pa. needs better methane regulations
Panelists at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing on Tuesday slammed the state’s proposed regulations on methane gas, and called on state lawmakers to let the Department of Environmental Protection exercise more regulatory authority. The hearing at the Teamster Temple in Pittsburgh brought environmental policymakers and advocates together to discuss methane emissions across Pennsylvania, including […]
Pa. environmental regulatory review board OKs study of cap and trade
A state regulatory review board asked the Department of Environmental Protection to review a proposal from environmental groups to set up a cap and trade system in Pennsylvania. The Environmental Quality Board, which enacts state environmental regulations, approved studying the proposal further by a 14-5 vote Tuesday. Filed late last year, the petition came from […]
State lawmakers question Wolf admin’s plan to fund environmental agencies
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 […]
Pa. government presses pause on permits for Mariner East 2 pipeline parent company
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 […]