Cast your ballot for the environment!

Be prepared: The PA primary is less than one week away! The importance of voting in the primary cannot be overstated, as elected officials will be facing critical environmental issues during their tenures. Vote!  Make a plan to vote prior to Election Day. Identify your polling location, and know the time of day you plan to vote. Remind friends and family about voting. Know Your Candidates: Most candidates provide important information about their environmental voting record, or positions on environmental issues, on their candidate websites. If your local Sierra Club group has obtained a Club endorsement for a strong environmental candidate in the May primary you should find information on your group’s website.  Questions about endorsed candidates may also be directed to your group’s political chair.  Many groups assist campaigns by providing volunteer support through phone banking and canvassing. Statewide Endorsement: The PA Chapter has endorsed Brad Koplinski in the race for Lieutenant Governor.

Click here for more information on candidate backgrounds and click here for gubernatorial candidate energy issues. Thank you for being an environmental voter! Joanne Kilgour, Director Sierra Club PA Chapter

Go Loon-y

Our Chapter Director Joanne Kilgour (a Maine native) and Lake Erie Group Outings Leader, Tom Heigel, let their true feathers show:

Are you a skilled bird whisperer? Share your calls with us! pennsylvania.chapter@sierraclub.org

Corbett's Smog Plan Does Little to Protect our Lungs

By Joanne Kilgour, Director, Sierra Club PA Chapter

This op-ed originally appeared in the York Dispatch.

Smog pollution is a serious health issue in Pennsylvania.  More than eight million Pennsylvanians live in areas with unsafe air due to dangerous levels of smog pollution.  That means nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvanians are at risk of inhaling a pollutant that is often compared to getting a sunburn on your lungs. Smog puts people at increased risk of developing asthma and heart disease, and triggers asthma attacks and heart attacks that can be fatal.  When smog levels rise, air-quality alert days mean that children, seniors, and other vulnerable groups must stay inside or face serious risks to their health.

On Wednesday the American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air Report, which found that York County residents continue to suffer from bad air quality.  The county scored an “F” grade for smog (or ozone) pollution, and the York/Harrisburg/Lebanon metro area ranked 64^th worst in the country out of 277 metro areas surveyed for smog pollution.  This is particularly bad news for the more than 44,000 county residents who have asthma (including over 10,000 children), the 22,000 people with COPD (a chronic lung disease) and the 30,000 people with heart disease.

Unfortunately for these vulnerable people, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) under Governor Corbett is not helping.  In April, the DEP unveiled a plan supposedly aimed at controlling smog pollution that does nothing to limit smog-causing nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution from coal-fired power plants, in spite of the fact that coal plants are the largest source of NOx pollution in the state.  While the eight largest plants are capable of cutting their average NOx emissions by about 40% using already installed technology, the limits set in the plan would actually allow these plants to increase their smog-causing pollution without any penalty.

These limits proposed by the DEP are three to four times higher than limits being considered in neighboring Maryland and New York for their coal power plants. That means Pennsylvania families could continue to suffer, even as other states take steps to clean up their air.

York County is home to the Brunner Island power plant, which is the 6^th largest coal power plant in the state.  It is also the only remaining large coal power plant that has not installed a common control for smog-causing pollution known as Selective Catalytic Reduction or SCR.  This technology is like a much bigger version of the catalytic converter on your car, and can reduce smog-forming pollution by 80-90 percent.  Without SCR, Brunner Island is contributing unnecessarily to the air quality woes not only of York County, but of Lancaster and Philadelphia, which have their own serious smog problems.

To add to the problem, the DEP proposal would allow the operator of Brunner Island, PP&L, to average emissions over its fleet of coal plants to comply with the already weak standard.  That means that even if the overall pollution limits were lowered, PP&L could comply by slashing emissions from its Montour plant, nearly two hours north of York, while smog-causing emissions continue from Brunner Island virtually unchecked.  That is simply unfair to people who have to breathe in York County, Lancaster County, and other areas directly downwind.

It is time for Governor Corbett’s DEP to live up to its name and protect the health of all Pennsylvanians. The DEP can start by improving their draft smog plan to include meaningful limits on smog-causing pollution from coal-fired power plants consistent with the use of modern, pollution-cutting SCR technology on every plant.  Our families deserve healthy air, so it’s time for Governor Corbett to cut pollution from coal plants and ensure we can all breathe easier.

You can learn more about Governor Corbett’s proposed smog plan, find out about attending upcoming public hearings and submit a comment through June 30^th at sc.org/pacutsmog

Restoring Clean Water Act Protections to Streams and Wetlands

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) recently proposed an important rule restoring Clean Water Act protections to streams and wetlands that protect our drinking water and reduce flooding. Many of these waters have been at increased risk of pollution and destruction for more than a decade because of inconsistent enforcement in the courts. The rule will be open for public comment for 90 days. 

• These updated safeguards reflect new scientific studies that show protecting these waters are important to down-stream consumers.
  
• Tributary streams and a wide variety of wetlands and other waters are critical to the condition of America’s waterways.
  
• The rule preserves existing exemptions for normal farming, mining and forestry activities for the production of food, fuel and fiber. This clean water rule clearly excludes certain upland ditches, ponds, and irrigation systems. 

The Sierra Club is joined by scores of industry, conservation, hunting and fishing organizations to support this “waters of the United States” rule, which will bolster the Clean Water Act’s legal and scientific foundation, provide greater long-term clarity for landowners and protect the streams, wetlands and other waters that feed our Nation’s rivers, lakes and bays. 
  
Why Streams and Wetlands Need Protection Now 

Before 2001: Virtually all streams, wetlands, lakes and other natural water bodies were covered under the Clean Water Act in accordance with congressional intent and the long-standing Corps and EPA definitions of “waters of the United States.” The important physical, chemical and biological connections between upstream wetlands and tributaries and downstream navigable waters were accepted and presumed to exist. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected industry arguments that wetlands were not “waters of the United States,” deferring to the experts at EPA and the Corps to identify water resources the law must protect to serve the law’s clean water goals. 

Since 2001: Later Supreme Court decisions, along with subsequent agency guidance issued in 2003 and 2008, called into question the status of upstream tributaries and wetlands and, as a result, have jeopardized critical water resources and fish and wildlife habitat. Taken together, these decisions have: 

• Threatened drinking water supplies. Headwater and intermittently-flowing streams feed into the public drinking water systems of more than 117 million Americans.
  
• Removed protections for 20 million acres of wetlands, including prairie potholes and other seasonal wetlands that provide important flood protection and essential wildlife habitat nationwide.
  
• Put at risk 59% of all stream miles in the continental United States. Many of these streams provide critical habitat for countless fish, especially trout.
  
• Put at risk the people, businesses and industries that rely on clean water: Everyone wants to drink clean, pure water. Brewers advertise the purity of their source water. Fish need clean water. Anglers alone generated nearly $115 billion in economic activity in 2011, breathing life into rural communities and supporting more than one million jobs.
  
• Polluted water costs consumers billions of dollars a year. 

Ensuring a Clean Water Future 

The proposed rule clarifies protections for about two million miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands and other waters not currently receiving full protection under the Clean Water Act. Recent scientific studies show that these waters have a significant physical, chemical, or biological connection to traditionally navigable or interstate waters. When finalized, this “waters of the United States” rule will bolster the Clean Water Act’s legal and scientific foundation, provide greater long-term clarity, and protect the streams, wetlands and other waters that feed our Nation’s rivers, lakes and bays. 

Click here to download a printable postcard that you can mail to EPA Administrator McCarthy and U.S Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant General Thomas P. Bostick. 

Governor Corbett's Plan Gives Coal Plants a Free Pass to Pollute

Over 8 million Pennsylvanians live in areas that violate federal standards for smog. Many of these same areas have the state’s highest asthma hospitalization rates.  While smog is harmful to everyone, it’s especially dangerous for children, the elderly and those already suffering from respiratory and heart disease. In Pennsylvania, communities of color suffer disproportionately more from asthma and asthma-related hospitalizations. Children in communities of color are nearly twice as likely to suffer from asthma.

Coal plants in Pennsylvania are capable of emitting 40% less smog-causing pollution than they are now, simply by operating controls they already have.  But rather than require them to do this, Gov. Corbett's plan sets limits that are 40% HIGHER than their current levels of pollution!  This plan is now open for public comment, and we need Gov. Corbett to hear from YOU that this dangerous plan is unfair and unacceptable.  

• Attend a public hearing and demand increased regulations:
  All hearings start at 1pm:
  
  

  May 27, 2014	Department of Environmental Protection Southwest Regional Office Waterfront Conference Rooms A and B 400 Waterfront Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15222
  May 28, 2014	Department of Environmental Protection Southeast Regional Office Delaware and Schuylkill Conference Rooms 2 East Main Street Norristown, PA 19401
  May 29, 2014	Department of Environmental Protection Rachel Carson State Office Building Conference Room 105 400 Market Street Harrisburg, PA 17105

• Read the full Additional RACT Requirements for Major Sources of NO_x and VOCs Here. 
  
  
• Check out Cut Smog for press releases, fact sheets and complete information on smog in the Commonwealth

Who Are the Radicals?

By Jack Miller
Chapter Vice-Chair

Chris Hedges has written correctly, I believe, that “a consumer culture based on corporate profits and limitless exploitation and continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed.” He has also written in the same vein that “the mania for ceaseless economic expansion and exploitation has become a curse, a death sentence.” While some may view these statements as “over the top” or radical, it is the exploiters, our corporate masters, who are the extreme radicals. For limitless profit they are changing the chemistry of the air breathe, the acidity of the oceans, the basic genetics of the plants we eat, and have blown up mountains to save a few cents on a ton of coal. They have contaminated the biosphere and each of us with more than 80,000 chemicals, most of which have never been tested. Please tell me who are the radicals?

            

As one who is in at least the “November of my years,” sometimes I wish I could just shut my consciousness off from what is going on around me and just become a mindless consumer which so many others have chosen to be. I’m not sure if it was the Sunday school classes from long ago, my family, my involvement in scouts, my education, or my life learning that won’t allow me to do this. While my faults are many, I know that at my core I feel I have a moral obligation to those who come after me. I feel that if I don’t fight for the future of my grandchildren then I can’t really say that I love them. I must do what I can to change the direction our nation and much of the world is heading. I don’t know what hope there is for this even though I am only one of many attempting to do so. We need a lot more people to join with us.

Courtesy of http://machimon.files.wordpress.com/

            

If we are to continue to have a habitable planet for our grandchildren, we must change the corporate/political status of our current government. We now live in a country which is much closer to a fascist state than a democracy. With their billions the corporations control much of what constitutes our government on all levels. With their hundreds of millions in political contributions, thousands of lobbyists, their politically motivated think tanks, and their old employees working as government regulators, they control most of what happens in Washington D.C. and most of the state capitols. In elections we often only have a choice of those with the best corporate financing when we enter the voting booth.

            

The corporations have learned to a great extent how to control our behavior. If you have ever seen any children’s TV you know that it starts at a very early age. We are a people who always want more. We are never satisfied. We are told over and over again what happiness just one more purchase will bring. Even though our electronics marvels work perfectly fine, we “need” to have that ever more marvelous gadget.  Even when our house is perfectly comfortable, we want ever more square footage or a new kitchen make over. We are driven to feed the corporate monster.

            

The corporations bombard us with how wonderful they are. Telling distortions and half-truths is their daily fare. After all, they are amoral, artificial creations. They certainly shouldn't have the rights guaranteed to individuals. Just think of all the ads touting the wonders of natural gas we all have seen filled with the lie that natural gas is clean energy. It may be cleaner than coal, but everything from the site preparation to the burning of the gas is dirty. Corporate dollars have been used to distort the truth with everything from smoking to climate change. Through their distortions they have been responsible for the death of countless thousands. They have given millions of people the comfort of living in ignorance of what we are doing to our planet and to our children’s future.

            

I know this is a very cynical view, but the ignorance of the general population seems pervasive. Level of education doesn't seem to always be the best indicator of an individual’s general knowledge.  With many it seems, that ignorance is a conscious choice. Too often, people change the facts to fit with their beliefs. The political right has chosen ignorance on environmental issues. If they accepted the facts on environmental issues, they would be forced to have the government take action, but they are more concerned with promoting the profits of their corporate masters who handsomely reward them financially. There are far too many on the opposite side of the isle who also have their hands out.

            

We all can make the decision to “clean-up” the mess we have made of our home planet. I know that for some fighting to earn enough to keep their families fed and under roof that time is very limited. But we as a country seem to have lots of time for sports, movies, TV, and our electronic gadgets. I know recreation is important, but most could give up some to help to do what needs to be done. We can all use just a few minutes to get out in nature to see what we will lose if we all don’t act. Consider that we may be doing more than destroying nature, we may be doing the same to human civilization. We must all begin to act now with whatever time we have. It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said “we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.”

            

Barbara Kingsolver has written, “Global commerce is driven by a single conviction: the inalienable right to earn profit, regardless of the human cost.” It is time that all of us disabuse them of this notion. While they have a right to make a profit, it must not be at the cost of our health, natural beauty, and the health of the biosphere on which we are all dependent. They must take on all their costs. They can no long increase their profits by externalizing their costs. They can no longer increase their profits at the expense of their workers’ health. They must no longer exploit their workers with inadequate pay while CEO’s have their pay increased by many millions of dollars.