Op-Ed: Should PA Appoint, Rather Than Elect Judges?
Rep. Greiner Bill Aimed At Earlier Presidential Primary
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Rep. Greiner Bill Aimed At Earlier Presidential Primary
May 19, 2015
May 18, 2015
Gov. Wolf Nominates Andrew Place For PUC Commissioner
Gov. Tom Wolf Monday nominated Andrew Place, corporate director for energy and environmental policy at EQT Corporation, to serve as commissioner on the Public Utility Commission.
“Andrew Place brings the knowledge and expertise to help advance my vision for the PUC, and I am pleased to nominate him to serve as commissioner,” said Gov. Wolf. “We must ensure there is a balance between consumers and utilities. We also have to develop Pennsylvania’s abundance of energy resources to make sure we have the infrastructure to support the natural gas and other energy industries. We have real opportunities to make Pennsylvania a leader in the development of renewable energy and energy efficiencies, and Andrew’s know-how will be a big asset to the PUC in helping accomplish these goals. I would like to thank Jim Cawley for his service as commissioner and I wish him well.”
Place is currently the corporate director for energy and environmental policy at EQT Corporation where he focuses on the economic and environmental implication of unconventional natural gas development.
Prior to joining EQT in 2011 Place served for eighteen months in Department of Environmental Protection, first as special assistant for energy and climate change and second as acting deputy secretary of the Office of Energy and Technology Deployment.
Before working at the Department of Environmental Protection, Place served as a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy with a primary focus on Carbon Capture and Sequestration among other technical, economic, and policy issues related to energy and the environment.
While remaining in his position with EQT, Andrew accepted the role of Interim executive director at the Center for Sustainable Shale Development in 2012. Place’s role at CSSD has been to raise awareness of the Center’s work while supporting continued consensus for the Center’s Performance Standards and certification to those standards.
Place holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.S. in Public Policy and Management from the H. John Heinz III College at Carnegie Mellon. Andrew also owns and operates a 210-acre farm in Greene County where he resides.Place succeeds James H. Cawley on the PUC. Cawley issued a letter of support for the new nominee.
Agriculture Issues Equine Herpesvirus Quarantine For Forest County Equine Barn
The Department of Agriculture Monday announced a quarantine of an equine barn in Tionesta, Forest County, after a horse at the barn tested positive for Equine Herpesvirus Type 1 (EHV-1) on May 13.
A horse from the Forest County barn was used in the Tionesta Wounded Warrior Horseback Scavenger Hunt, where 94 horses took part, including horses from Ohio and West Virginia.
An equine barn in Shippenville, Clarion County, housing an exposed horse that showed clinical signs of EHV-1, was put under precautionary quarantine Thursday, May 14, until the pending laboratory results are confirmed. Two additional horses from the Forest County equine barn have shown signs of illness after being exposed to the positive horse.
The Department of Agriculture is in the process of tracing the horses that participated in the scavenger hunt, and has notified animal health officials in Ohio and West Virginia.
Clinical signs of the disease can range from respiratory to neurological impairment. In most situations, the disease is only mildly contagious.
There is no threat to human health from Equine Herpesvirus.
The barns and horses are quarantined for at least 21 days. The quarantine can be lifted after that three-week period. Strict sanitary and biosecurity standards are then enforced.
Horse owners with concerns may contact the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services at 717-772-2852.
May 17, 2015
May 16, 2015
May 15, 2015
May 18 PA Environment Digest Now Available
The PennAg Industries Association on Wednesday sent a letter to Sen. David Argall (R-Schuylkill) saying they “do not support [Senate Bill 724] as currently written due to our issues and concerns, contrary to a statement made by Ed Schafer, Bion Environmental Technologies, at a Senate Committee hearing May 6 where he said they did.
When House Bill 1565 (Hahn-R-Lehigh) was originally introduced at the request of the PA Builders Association in 2013 it said simply, “The use or installation of riparian buffers and riparian forest buffers shall not be required under this section.”
Now the Builders Association is unhappy again because DEP is implementing the final language they agreed to in the final version of the bill signed into law as Act 162.
The Senate Wednesday adopted a resolution recognizing the 20th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s Land Recycling Program to coincide with the PA Brownfields Conference being held in Erie this week. The resolution was sponsored by Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
Hundreds of redevelopment and remediation experts from across the northeast gathered at the Erie Bayfront Convention Center May 13 for the 2015 Pennsylvania Brownfields Conference.
The scene of cattle lounging in a stream on a hot summer day may not be so idyllic after all. A new report from the Chesapeake Bay Commission finds that allowing livestock in streams harms both the animal and the water.
Unfortunately, Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law includes a provision providing a stream fencing requirement. Section 702 says, “No administrative agency of the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof shall require any person to erect a fence along a stream in a pasture or other field used for grazing of farm livestock for the purpose of keeping farm livestock out of the stream.”
The PA League of Women Voters’ Water Resources Education Network Friday announced the award of $19,000 in grants to four community partnerships across the Commonwealth.
The Department of Environmental Protection published notice in the May 16 PA Bulletin saying permit reviews may now be impacted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Northern Long-eared Bat as a federally threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
With the addition of this bat to the list of threatened species, all PA Natural Diversity Inventory searches in this Commonwealth now have the potential to identify this bat as potential concern in specific areas.
Therefore, DEP said, any search that was done before May 4, 2015, did not encompass the Federally- listed bat and will need to be rerun for this threatened species.
Click Here for a DEP fact sheet on the issue.
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is still accepting 2-minute videos of people making their communities clean and beautiful for the Great American Cleanup of PA Video Contest. Entries are due May 22.
To read the Digest, visit: www.PaEnvironmentDigest.com. Click Here to 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.
PA Environment Digest was the winner of the PA Association of Environmental Educators' 2009 Business Partner of the Year Award.
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