WHYY
By
Rachel McDevittMay 11, 2021
Shown is the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, March 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
This article originally appeared on StateImpact Pennsylvania.
State lawmakers are asking the administrators of a regional cap-and-trade program to bar Pennsylvania’s entrance unless the legislature approves.
But the nonprofit RGGI, Inc. doesn’t require legislative backing to admit a new state.
All Republicans and one coal-region Democrat on the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted recently to warn RGGI, Inc. against Gov. Tom Wolf’s “illegitimate” attempt to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
They voted the same day the Department of Environmental Protection released its final draft rule to participate.
DAVID E. HESS
On April 20, the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee approved legislation by party-line vote– Republicans supporting– to allow the General Assembly to kill final regulations by doing nothing, provide a shield to law violators and mandating private review of DEP permit applications.
The bills include: Killing Regulations By Doing Nothing: House Bill 72 (Keefer-R-York) would require legislative approval of any economically significant final regulation or final-omitted regulation that has an impact of $1 million or more on a regulated community. In order for a final regulation approved by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission to go into effect, the Senate and House would have to adopt a concurrent resolution approving the regulation. If one or both of the chambers failed to act, the final regulation would be deemed NOT approved and would be prohibited from taking effect.
Harrisburg, Pa. â A bill to allow municipal officials to meet remotely even after the COVID-19 emergency ends was introduced on Friday in the state House of Representatives.
Title 35 was changed last April to allow municipalities to remotely meet during disaster emergencies but boroughs must resume in-person meetings once the current emergency ends.
The bill introduced by Rep. Perry S. Warren (D-Bucks) would amend Title 8, the Borough Code, so that remote participation always would be sufficient to constitute a quorum.
Local officials and the public could meet via devices that allow for audio communication at a minimum, such as phones or computer terminals.
Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
This week, for Earth Day, President Joe Biden is holding a virtual summit with world leaders to discuss the climate crisis.
Also this week, Republican leaders in Pennsylvania’s capital showcased the oil and gas industry as good environmental stewards.
It’s a familiar theme for Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), who is chairing the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee for the second straight term.
In his tenure, he has invited climate change deniers to testify at hearings, criticized the governor’s attempts to address climate change as overreach and unconstitutional, and tried to loosen a number of environmental regulations.
WHYY
By
The Pennsylvania state Capitol is seen in this file photo. (Tom Downing/WITF)
This story originally appeared on StateImpact Pennsylvania.
Natural gas and coal boosters across Pennsylvania logged on to video meetings Wednesday and told Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature that: Yes, there is a bright future for fossil fuels.
The two hearings on the same day underlined a couple of divides.
One was between policymakers and scientists who say we must move to low- and no-carbon power sources to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Another was between members of a party that says it wants to tackle climate change.