June 16, 2017

June 19 PA Environment Digest Is Now Available

The June 19 PA Environment Digest is now available.  Here are just a few of the headlines--

The PA Environmental Council Wednesday posted this statement on this year’s state budget deliberations and chronically inadequate funding for environmental and conservation programs--

By Marci Mowery, President, PA Parks & Forests Foundation & Tim Herd, Executive Director, PA Recreation & Parks Society
Seventy-three percent of adults surveyed across Pennsylvania and 68 percent of primary care clinic visitors in Hershey, Dauphin County, consider parks, trails, and open space to be a critical part of the health care system, according to a recent Penn State study.

Presenters told the Joint Senate/House Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee Tuesday it is critical the General Assembly authorize the $2 recycling fee which supports waste and recycling programs, fix the broken electronics recycling law and engage stakeholders in a more comprehensive review of updates needed to the 1988 Act 101 recycling and municipal waste law.

In testimony submitted to the Joint Conservation Committee for a hearing Tuesday, June 13, Keep PA Beautiful President Sharon Reiter said the 1988 Recycling and Waste Reduction law (Act 101) succeeded in creating the biggest curbside recycling program in the nation and encouraged safe sites for waste disposal.  

By Karl Blankenship, Chesapeake Bay Journal
Pennsylvania effort to write a more robust Bay cleanup strategy was launched last week in a packed hotel auditorium where more than 200 people gathered to offer their initial thoughts about what a new — and more implementable — plan would look like.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA Thursday announced it will receive an innovative federal grant designed to put conservation practices on farms that will allow municipalities to satisfy stormwater pollution reduction requirements and return profits to capital investors.

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission Monday told members of the House State Government Committee a three-year intensive management reorganization has resulted in a more than 40 percent reduction in municipal permit fees, overall streamlining of its regulatory process and creation of a Public Water Supply Assistance Program to offer technical assistance and further fee reductions to small municipal water supply systems.

In 2016, natural gas provided 34 percent of total electricity generation, surpassing coal to become the leading generation source. In the Northeast, electricity generation with natural gas has exceeded coal-fired generation since February 2011.

By Joseph Sabino Mistick
The following op-ed appeared in the Tribune Review on June 10 under the title, “Lawrence’s Political Courage” --

To read the Digest, visit: www.PaEnvironmentDigest.com.  Click Here to view or print the entire Digest.

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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Questions?: Send email to David Hess at: DHess@CrisciAssociates.com