Many lawmakers and conservationists breathed a sigh of relief when the Department of Environmental Protection announced last week it would halt permit review on the controversial Mariner East pipeline.

But not Rep. Danielle Friel Otten (D-Chester).

“On the heels of that announcement, I’m watching bulldozers roll into my neighborhood right now,” Friel Otten said. “As I drive through my community, they are ramping up to get started on construction throughout Chester County again.”

State lawmakers and politicos are preparing for an early session fight over the future of Pennsylvania’s nuclear power industry, the second biggest in all fifty states.

“It’s the worst kind of legislative challenge,” Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), co-chair of the state’s bipartisan Nuclear Caucus said. “It’s complicated, costly, urgent and irreversible.”

Allies of the industry have coalesced around a report, issued by the Nuclear Energy Caucus, which projects significant environmental and economic problems if the state’s nuclear plants falter in the coming years.

Governor Tom Wolf announced a preemptive strike against climate change via executive order in Pittsburgh Tuesday.

Believing that climate change poses a significant risk, Wolf wants to see state operations reduce their carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

The order sets three goals, non binding upon the completion of his final term as governor in 2022.

The Philadelphia Health Department and Mayor Jim Kenney (D) announced Wednesday new guidelines for doctors in prescribing pain medications following operations.

Created with doctors from the city’s major hospitals and health systems, they recommend significantly less doses of opioid painkillers to manage patients recovering from surgery.

Also, Kenney signed a 20-year purchase agreement with the Adams Solar project slated to open in 2020 to provide Philadelphia with renewable energy.

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.