The Tax Code bill passed by the Senate Thursday-- House Bill 542 (Thomas-D-Philadelphia) -- includes provisions creating a special Advisory Committee that must approve any air quality general permits for oil and gas operations before they go into effect and directs DEP to set up a third-party permit review program for all its permits.
The net impact of the changes would be to emasculate the ability of the Department of Environmental Protection to regulate pollution under any of its programs and sets up significant conflicts with the ability of the agency to continue to administer any of its federal regulatory programs.
The PA Environmental Council Thursday sent a letter to all members of the General Assembly and Gov. Wolf urging them to oppose provisions in the Tax Code bill-- House Bill 542 (Thomas-D-Philadelphia)-- that make drastic and unprecedented changes to permit reviews by the Department of Environmental Protection.
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources manages about 2.5 million acres of public lands on behalf of all Pennsylvanians. As part of its mission, the department looks to incorporate sustainable management practices to do the right thing, and also demonstrate those practices to the public.
Pennsylvania has 86,000 miles of rivers and streams, which flow through farms and backyards, cities and towns, forests and fields. This means that no matter where Pennsylvanians live, virtually all citizens have a role to play in protecting the state's critical water resources.
On July 28, 1988 Gov. Bob Casey signed into law the most innovative recycling legislation in the nation, setting the standard for state recycling laws across the country.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni issued a ruling Tuesday saying the New York program awarding zero emission credits to certain nuclear generators for their zero-emissions electricity production is constitutional and does not intrude on federal jurisdiction of wholesale electricity markets and dismissed the case against the program, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Former Gov. Mark Schweiker, former DEP Secretary David Hess, Joe Sbaffoni, then head of Bituminous Mine Safety, several miners rescued from the Quecreek Mine and current DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell Thursday joined rescue site owner Bill Arnold and many others to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the historic Quecreek Mine Rescue.
PA Environment Digest is edited by David E. Hess, former Secretary Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and is published as a service of Crisci Associates.
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