Santa’s Naughty & Nice List 11/30/07
Friday, November 30th, 2007Dear Boys and Girls,
Santa has started some dry runs for Christmas Eve â testing the sleighâs new GPS system courtesy of Mrs. Claus. (She muttered something about men refusing to ask for directions as I unwrapped it.) The system works very well, and combined with Rudolphâs shiny new compact fluorescent nose, we should be in good shape. But the folks in southwestern Pennsylvania are worried and, after talking to them, so am I.
The nice boys and girls with Stop the Towers told me about the plan by Allegheny Energy to run a massive 240 mile 500 kilovolt power line through Washington and Greene Counties in Pennsylvania, across northern West Virginia and into northern Virginia. The transmission towers could be up to 160 feet tall and the rights of way could be 200 feet wide. The lines will be engineered to be capable of carrying twice the power of a normal 500kv line. I donât need to tell you what kind of damage hitting those monsters would do to my sleigh, all its contents and the reindeer, too.
Everyone who is anyone in Pennsylvania seems to be against the power lines â from Governor Rendell to the local state representatives and senators to all elected officials, not to mention the more than 2,000 local residents who testified against it and the Energy Conservation Council of Pennsylvania, which has filed a lawsuit to stop it. But the Stop the Towers nice boys and girls are also working to help make new transmission lines less necessary by pushing for passage of the Energy Independence Strategy (EIS).
If the legislature passes the EIS, power companies would need to meet all of our new electricity demand through energy efficiency programs, not by building more power plants and power lines. And we could save up to $12 billion, too.
Nice boy Senator Edwin (Ted) Erickson (R-Chester, Delaware) has introduced the legislation in the senate, Special Session SB 35, which would make energy conservation and efficiency the way to go. His bill is cosponsored by the nice Senators John C. Rafferty, Jr. (R-Berks, Chester, Montgomery), Raphael J. Musto (D-Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe) and John N. Wozniak (D- Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Somerset).
Nice Representative Chris Ross (R-Chester) introduced a similar bill, Special Session HB 31, last month, with these nice boys and girls as co-sponsors: William F. Adolph, Jr. (R-Delaware), Stephen Barrar (R-Chester, Delaware), Robert E. Belfanti, Jr. (D-Columbia, Montour, Northumberland), Scott W. Boyd (R-Lancaster), Steven W. Cappelli (R-Lycoming), Paul I. Clymer (R-Bucks), Mike Fleck (R-Blair, Huntingdon, Mifflin), Dan B. Frankel (D-Allegheny), Mauree A. Gingrich (R-Lebanon), Julie Harhart (R-Lehigh, Northampton), C. Adam Harris (R-Juniata, Mifflin, Snyder), Tim Hennessey (R-Chester), Arthur D. Hershey (R-Chester), John Hornaman (D-Erie), Mark Keller (R-Franklin, Perry), Duane Milne (R-Chester), Phyllis Mundy (D-Luzerne), Mark Mustio (R-Allegheny), Steven R. Nickol (R-Adams, York), Bernie O’Neill (R-Bucks), Michael Peifer (R-Monroe, Pike, Wayne), Douglas G. Reichley (R-Berks, Lehigh), Carole A. Rubley (R-Chester, Montgomery), Stanley E. Saylor (R-York), Mario M. Scavello (R-Monroe), Curt Schroder (R-Chester), John J. Siptroth (D-Monroe, Pike), David J. Steil (R-Bucks), Rosemarie Swanger (R-Lebanon), W. Curtis Thomas (D-Philadelphia), Gregory Vitali (D-Delaware), Jim Wansacz (D-Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna, Wyoming), Katherine M Watson (R-Bucks), and Rosita C. Youngblood (D-Philadelphia).
Hope you like the picture from my road trip to Pittsburgh on Wednesday with Representative Joseph Preston, Jr. and other nice boys and girls from PennFuture, Conservation Consultants, Inc., Group Against Smog and Pollution and Steel City Biofuels. We had a lot of fun!
As always, send me your own naughty and nice list at Santa@PennFuture.org.
