Battle for Energy
Independence Starts

The Senate kicked off the Special Session on Energy Policy this week with a hearing
on the PennSecurity
Fuels Initiative. On Monday Governor
Rendell will discuss the Energy
Independence Strategy before a joint session of the General Assembly.

Will Pennsylvania win energy
independence or surrender? The stakes are that big.

Politics as usual will lose
the battle for energy independence by doing nothing, or passing small items
that make no real difference to how much energy is consumed or how energy is
made. Winning energy independence means boosting energy conservation and curtailing
the addiction to oil and coal.

To be specific, winning this
vital battle means Pennsylvania must require:

  • that energy
    efficiency     be increased enough to stop the annual 1.5 percent increase
    in demand that is now taking place like clockwork;
  • an $850
    million fund     to finance solar, wind, energy conservation and clean
    energy projects;
  • smart
    meter     installation in all homes and businesses over a reasonable
    period to cut peak demand - demand that is driving up electricity prices
    and the need for more power lines and power plants; and,
  • increasing
    production of
    biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol    .

Bipartisan Support Grows for HSCA
Funding

Representatives Rick
Taylor (D-Montgomery) and Mike Vereb
(R-Montgomery) this week introduced House
Bill 1810, which taps $30 million of surplus budget revenues to make sure
the Hazardous
Sites Cleanup Account (HSCA) is fully funded for the remainder of the
2007-2008 fiscal year. There are 79 co-sponsors
of this bill and counting.

Senator Charles McIlhinney (R-Bucks)
plans to introduce companion legislation, Senate Bill 1059, in the very near
future.

Haul Your Ash Out of
Here

A report
by the Clean Air Task Force and Earthjustice examines the practice of
allowing power plant fly ash to be dumped into abandoned coal mines. Records
from 10 of 15 mines in Pennsylvania examined show unsafe levels of arsenic,
lead, cadmium, chromium and other pollutants in nearby streams and ground
water.

Don’t have time for the
exhaustive report? Watch the video.

Vance Proposes Shift in
Truck Idling Practices

Diesel soot pollution from trucks is a burgeoning public
health problem for Pennsylvania. And it is not just an urban problem.
Interstate 81 and numerous truck warehouses help make Cumberland County one of
the 25 worst places for this fine particle pollution in the nation according to
the American
Lung Association.

This week Senator Pat Vance (R-Cumberland and York) introduced
legislation to significantly restrict the idling of commercial diesel
vehicles. Senate Bill 1095 prohibits these trucks from idling more than five
minutes, with certain exceptions, if the outside temperature is between 40 and
80 degrees.

On May 16, the Environmental
Quality Board voted to accept DEP’s recommendation that the agency develop statewide
anti-idling regulations. The move was in a response to a petition submitted by
the Clean Air Board of Central
Pennsylvania.

Not Another Lawyer Joke


Know a sharp legal eagle interested in working to protect Pennsylvania’s
environment and economy? Please send her or him our way. PennFuture has an opening for an attorney to
work in our Pittsburgh office.