Even as President Donald Trump helmed as the federal government reconsiders a push for stricter air quality regulations, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection is poised to forge ahead with the initiative following late Obama-era instructions.

 

The state Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee discussed this early draft of new rules for oil and natural gas industries at a meeting Thursday morning.

On Friday afternoon, Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Tracy Carluccio, joined other supporters in the Capitol to deliver petitions to Gov. Tom Wolf and ask him to vote at the Delaware River Basin Commission for a permanent ban on fracking and its activities. 

There were over 90,000 petitions delivered to the governor and the vote is expected to come up in the next few months. 

A bipartisan group of General Assembly members, surrounded by cheering plant employees in a cramped Londonderry firehouse, released a report Thursday that called on their colleagues to take action and support the flagging nuclear power industry.

Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), a co-chair of the Nuclear Energy Caucus, laid out high stakes if the industry, which produces 42 percent of the state’s electricity, was left to perish as energy prices plummet, at least partially because of competition from natural gas.

“We’re not talking about a bailout, we’re not talking about a subsidy, we’re talking about valuing each resource appropriately,” Aument said. “Basing long-term energy decisions on short-term price...I think that’s foolish.”

Environmentalist activists proposed carbon emissions regulations to the state Environmental Quality Board Wednesday that would, if implemented, create a market for greenhouse gases to reach carbon neutrality by 2052.

Their argument cites both existing state clean air laws as well as the environmental rights clause of the state constitution to claim the state has a duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect its residents from harm.

“I not only think it’s feasible, think it's absolutely essential,” Joseph Otis Minott, executive director of the Clean Air Council, said. “We’re prepared to litigate it if need be. This is the right path for Pennsylvania.”

A new cabinet position and a commonwealth agency focused on energy production and coordination are on the agenda for state business leaders who want to expand Pennsylvania’s gas economy.

In a report released Thursday entitled “Forge the Future: Ideas for Actions,” industry leaders said that the state’s potential in gas economic growth – totaling $60 billion between production, energy generation and manufacturing - is threatened by poor business conditions in the state, from the nation high 9.99 corporate net income tax to slow permitting.