HARRISBURG – In a 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has
concurred with a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation appeal looking to reverse a decision from the Commonwealth Court – which had found an unmined coal estate adjacent to highway construction was illegally seized by state transport authorities through eminent domain.
The Commonwealth Court
decided in March 2019 that a
de facto taking of land on which the coal estate was located had occurred, when PennDOT undertook construction of Highway 219 in southern Somerset County in 2010, to the detriment of Penn Pocahontas Coal Co. and PBS Coals, Inc.
The Commonwealth Court ruled that options to determine right-of-way access to the coal estate in question’s surface, located on Parcel 55, were eliminated through the highway construction. Parcel 55, located in Brothersvalley, was owned by Penn Pocahontas and leased to PBS Coals.
Gilpatrick Solar, Union Street projects on agenda
ELLSWORTH Plans to subdivide a former medical clinic located at 8 Union St. and a separate project to construct a 19.81-acre, ground-mounted solar array on Gilpatrick Road will be seeking final application approval from the Planning Board on Feb. 3. Both applications were deemed complete by the board in January.
At that meeting, the board raised no major issues with the Gilpatrick Solar Project, as presented by Chris Byers and Dale Knapp of consulting firm Boyle Associates. The project was waiting for review by the Maine Historical Preservation Council, and a Department of Environmental Protection application for a stormwater runoff permit had been accepted by the DEP as complete. Aypa Power, a subsidiary of conglomerate Blackstone Energy Partners, is behind the project.
Reinventing Pa. state government: House panel looks at merging eight agencies into four
Updated Jan 26, 2021;
With a new governor taking office in two years and state government operating mostly in a tele-commuting mode since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, some House Republicans consider this to be an appropriate time to look at making some generational changes to the way some of Pennsylvania’s governmental agencies are structured.
The House State Government Committee will meet at 8 a.m. on Wednesday to consider a package of GOP-sponsored bills that seek to reduce eight state agencies into four.
“We have a huge opportunity right now to really restructure how government works and refocus it and reprioritize it into some important areas that I think Pennsylvanians care about,” said Committee Chairman Seth Grove, R-York County.
В Тюменской области расследуют убийство косули tumen.kp.ru - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tumen.kp.ru Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit: saebaryo (CC BY-ND 2.0)
The Highlands: There is concern about the potential impact of the bill on core forest in the Highlands Preservation Area.
Anytime a forest is acquired by a government or nonprofit, the state would be required to write a “stewardship plan,” under a bill approved Monday despite a storm of protest from environmentalists who argued that the measure would lead to more logging and more destruction of public lands if it becomes law.
The Assembly Agriculture Committee on Monday voted unanimously to release bill A-4843 as well as three related measures that would mean municipalities would not have to approve forest stewardship plans; that would set minimum acreage goals for prescribed burns in the Pinelands and statewide, and that would seek cooperation between government and landowners in setting stewardship plans.