2013-2014 PA Environmental Legislative Scorecard

Hi PA Sierrans!

We, along with Conservation Voters of PA and Clean Water Action, released the 2013-2014 PA Environmental Legislative Scorecard.

One thing I want to note for you, our Chapter volunteers and leaders, is that a few of the Republican Senators in the Southeastern part of the state who scored low - Sen. Rafferty, Sen. Greenleaf, and Sen. Tomlinson each at 38% - did come through for us in these last few days of session and vote against the two bad bills that were pushed through just this week - HB 2354 and HB 1565. They represent an important environmental voice in their caucus so I wanted to highlight those votes for you since their scores warranted a bit more explanation, in my view. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about the scorecard, the votes, etc. and please also see the brief additional description below for why some of the votes mattered so much:

The 2014-2015 state budget process also reflects the largely anti-environment sentiment within the legislature. Funding for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has been reduced to unconscionably low levels, making the agency even more dependent on revenue from oil and gas leases on state lands such as our parks and forests. General Fund monies allocated to DCNR were reduced to around $15 million, nearly a 90% cut since 2006. The remainder of DCNR's budget will be largely made up from Oil and Gas Lease Fund transfers, making the state agency charged with conservation of public lands instead dependent on gas drilling and timber cutting for even its most basic adminstrative function. Similarly, funding for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) was reduced by 53.5%, from $934,000 to $434,000, and notably the DRBC currently has a moratorium on natural gas extraction within the basin.

In addition to the budget bill itself, the legislature passed a Fiscal Code bill, HB 278, to implement the budget, containing several bad environmental provisions. First, the bill authorized the use of revenue from new oil and gas leases on state park and forest land for the General Fund, permitting a transfer of $95 million from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund to the General Fund exclusively from these new leases. The language regarding new leases on state lands in the Fiscal Code bill is also concerning since the bill contained the assertion that the Oil and Gas Lease Fund is not a Constitutional Trust, which could impact legal interpretations regarding the permissive allocation of Oil and Gas Lease Fund monies for non-conservation purposes. In addition, jammed into this bill is a requirement that the Environmental Quality Board promulgate distinct regulations for conventional oil and gas wells and unconventional oil and gas wells after stand-alone legislation that would have required that did not pass; essentially this was a successful attempt to circumvent the full legislative process by inappropriately inserting this language into the Fiscal Code bill. 

HB 1565 takes away current protections provided by forested buffers for some of our finest streams and rivers across the Commonwealth.  Current Chapter 102 regulations exist to protect water quality, requiring 150 foot vegetated streamside buffers for all development along high quality (HQ) and exceptional value (EV) streams.  Stream buffers are better at protecting water quality than any other best management practice.  Buffers capture nutrient pollutants and sediments, and retain roots that are essential to the prevention of erosion and loss of soil. Buffers also protect downstream communities from flooding impacts, increase property values, and support the multi-billion dollar outdoor recreation industry in Pennsylvania. No other management practice can match forested riparian and riparian buffers in protection and enhancement of the biological, chemical, and physical habitat of our valued rivers and streams.

HB 2354, introduced by Democrat Pam Snyder from Greene County, is an effort to hinder state efforts to reduce carbon pollution. HB 2354 will make it harder for Pennsylvania to comply with the Clean Power Plan, which will put the first-ever national limits on carbon pollution from power plants. This bill will allow any one chamber of the state General Assembly to veto any state-level greenhouse gas emission reduction plan required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the proposed Clean Power Plan. However, EPA is required to implement a federal plan in any state that does not provide its own, so if political jockeying interferes with our ability to enact a state implementation plan here in PA, we expose the Commonwealth instead to the possibility of federal mandates.

Air pollution such as that the Clean Power Plan aims to reduce is causes increased risk to our communities from premature death, asthma, heart attacks, and other ailments. In a recent study by Harvard School of Public Health at Harvard University, Pennsylvania was identified as one of 12 states with the most premature deaths avoided as a result of meeting our carbon dioxide emissions reduction. Legislative pressure to politicize the clean power plan the way HB 2354 has in PA could make it more difficult for us to achieve these benefits to the health of our communities. 

All the best,

Joanne Kilgour

Chapter Director

Sierra Club PA Chapter

717-232-0101

#WCW

 

Our woman crush Wednesday goes out to all the female House Democratic & GOP members who voted to oppose HB 1565 - a bill that would put our most precious waterways at risk. 

A big thanks to Representatives: 

• Boback, Karen
• Brown, Vanessa
• Brownlee, Michelle
• Corbin, Becky
• Daley, Mary Jo
• Davidson, Margo
• Davis, Tina
• Dean, Madeline
• DeLissio, Pamela
• Donatucci, Maria
• Harper, Kate
• Kim, Patty
• Molchany, Erin
• Mundy, Phyllis
• Parker, Cherelle
• Quinn, Marguerite
• Toepel, Marcy
• Watson, Kathy

Environmental Health and Environmental Justice in Pennsylvania: Where Do We Go From Here?

Wilderness Act marks 50 years

www.goerie.com/wilderness-act-marks-50-years
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 08. 2014   Erie Times-News

Wilderness Act marks 50 years
By RON LEONARDI

Howard Zahniser didn't live to see President Lyndon Johnson sign into law the Wilderness Act on Sept. 3, 1964.

Zahniser, a Tionesta resident and a fervent conservationist, was the principal author and lobbyist of the six-page landmark conservation bill.

He died at age 58 of heart failure in early May 1964 after spending eight years crafting and recrafting his original proposal in 1956.

Zahniser's grandson, Justin Duewel-Zahniser, 33, of Silver Spring, Md., believes his grandfather knew before his death the passage of the bill was a certainty.

"It's unfortunate that he died before the signing, but I believe he knew at that point it was all over but the signing,'' Justin Zahniser said.

"I don't think he would really have any deep regret over it because he did the piece that was important, which is get it to the point where it was just action,'' he said. "I don't think of him as having missed out on it. It would have been fantastic for him to be there at the signing, but I think he knew that it was done and that was the important thing.''

The Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, which permanently protects more than 109 million acres of federal public land.

As the nation commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, many people are learning of Howard Zahniser for the first time and realizing the prevalent role he played in implementing the national wilderness policy, his grandson said.

"There are a lot of names that people know, like Aldo Leopold, Henry David Thoreau and all these different characters in American conservation and environmentalism,'' Justin Zahniser said. "Then there's Howard Zahniser, who did one of the most significant things in the last century as far as conservation is concerned and a lot of people aren't really aware of him.''

Justin Zahniser presented a lecture on Wednesday at the Erie Art Museum in which he discussed his grandfather's background and Pennsylvania roots, his conservation legacy and his role in creating the Wilderness Act.

"It's been really interesting to see people celebrate wilderness and the work of my grandfather, and really look on it with reverence and what can we do with this going forward, and having just this life connection to that is really interesting to me,'' said Justin Zahniser, a director of product management for a Washington, D.C., information technology firm.

A monthlong wilderness photography exhibit in Warren honoring Howard Zahniser opened Aug. 30 and is scheduled for viewing through Sept. 28 at Crary Art Gallery, 511 Market St.

The gallery and the Warren-based Friends of Allegheny Wilderness are presenting the exhibit, "Wilderness at 50: Photographic Reflections on the Legacy of Tionesta Visionary Howard Zahniser.''

"We worked on curating some of the biggest names in nature photography and wilderness photography,'' said Kirk Johnson, executive director of Friends of Allegheny Wilderness.

There are currently 758 designated wilderness areas in the nation, managed by four federal land management agencies: the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.

Pennsylvania's designated wilderness areas encompass two tracts -- Hickory Creek and Allegheny Islands -- totaling 9,000 acres in the 513,000-acre Allegheny National Forest.

"The show and the anniversary honoring his work are important because this (Allegheny National Forest) was his home national forest, and there are many other roadless, untrammeled areas in the Allegheny National Forest that qualify for wilderness designation,'' Johnson said.

The Warren exhibit features photos from 11 professional and three amateur photographers.

"My grandfather was sort of behind the scenes doing the lobbying work on the Wilderness Act bill,'' Justin Zahniser said. "Working on the bill wasn't the sexiest thing in the world, but it was crucial and very effective.''

Justin Zahniser said 50th anniversary commemorations of the Wilderness Act have enabled people "to get connected to it.''

"My grandfather had a real philosophy and a passion for it,'' he said. "He literally poured his life into this, and to bring people to that passion and that way of thinking, and to really introduce them to how he thought about wilderness and how important it was to us as a nation and a people, I think, is really fantastic. It's too bad it's not 50 years every year."

Justin Zahniser said he is trying to "carry the torch'' and continue educating the public on his grandfather's legacy.

"I grew up spending every summer in the Adirondacks, and my dad worked for the National Park Service for many decades,'' Justin Zahniser said. "I grew up climbing mountains, hiking and going on park tours with him out west. I've definitely grown up with that respect for the environment and an understanding of the impact we have on it.''

Howard Zahniser, the son of a minister, was born in Franklin in 1906, but grew up in Tionesta along the banks of the Allegheny River and near the Allegheny National Forest.

His love for nature and wilderness was further cultivated in the fifth grade when one of his teachers steered him toward joining the Junior Audubon Club, Justin Zahniser said.

"His parents honored books and education,'' Justin Zahniser said.

Later in life, Howard Zahniser developed a love of the Adirondack Mountains.

From 1930 through 1943, he worked for the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, and in 1935 he began writing a monthly book review column for Nature Magazine.

In 1945, he joined the Wilderness Society as executive secretary and later served as the organization's executive director.

He served as editor of the Wilderness Society's magazine, "The Living Wilderness,'' from 1945 to 1964.

"My grandfather made a leap from a lucrative civil service career to go to the Wilderness Society, take a big pay cut and a big cut in his future and security,'' Justin Zahniser said.

Justin Zahniser said it was during the early 1950s when his grandfather began to realize the need to craft a national wilderness policy into law.

Howard Zahniser drafted the original Wilderness Act in 1956.

Later that year, the bill was introduced in Congress. U.S. Rep. John P. Saylor, of Pennsylvania, introduced it in the House of Representatives and Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey introduced it in the Senate.

From 1956 to its passage in 1964, Howard Zahniser wrote 66 drafts of the Wilderness Act and attended all 18 public hearings on the bill.

He also personally lobbied nearly every member of Congress in support of the legislation.

"He even had my dad and his siblings lobbying on the weekends,'' Justin Zahniser said. "They would go into Capitol Hill on the weekends. Back in those days, the senators and Congress people couldn't afford to fly home every weekend, so they'd be in the offices unprotected by staff, so my dad and his siblings would go in and leaflet them and tell them about their wilderness experience.''

"His perseverance and persistence were part of the equation, but what he also did is he had a very pragmatic approach to lobbying,'' Johnson said. "He did not have an adversarial relationship with anybody who opposed his legislation. He sets a high example of how other conservationists should and could model their own wilderness advocacy work.''

Howard Zahniser died of a massive heart attack on May 5, 1964.

"He knew it was coming,'' Justin Zahniser said. "There's a remark where he was testifying before, I think, a Senate subcommittee. He had labored breathing and was sweating and it was really tough. He made some comments where he felt like his days were a bit numbered. He said something to the effect that, 'The passage of the bill seems much more guaranteed for survival than me at this point.'''

Howard Zahniser is buried at Tionesta Riverside Cemetery, which overlooks the Allegheny River.

"He worked on every single draft of the bill and he testified at every hearing nationwide,'' Justin Zahniser said. "Even in failing health, he never gave up.''

RON LEONARDI can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail.

Climate Change Impacts in Pennsylvania and the Benefits of a Clean Energy Transition

Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee Hearing

Testimony of Thomas Schuster

On behalf of the Sierra Club

Regarding: Climate Change Impacts in Pennsylvania and the Benefits of a Clean Energy Transition

8/26/2014

       I             Introduction

My name is Thomas Schuster and I am a Senior Campaign Representative with the Sierra Club in Pennsylvania.  The Sierra Club is the oldest and largest non-profit environmental advocacy organization in the United States, with approximately 24,000 members in Pennsylvania.  My testimony today will address misperceptions about the cost of confronting climate disruption.  Not only is inaction on climate disruption much more costly than mitigating it, but a transition to a clean energy economy will actually create jobs and savings on balance.

     II.            The Need for Action to Address Climate Disruption

The costs of failing to adequately deal with climate disruption, caused mainly by carbon pollution, are immense.  By the end of the century, the northeast as a region is expected to see an additional 57 days per year (nearly 2 more full months) of temperatures over 95 degrees.[1]  This will have severe consequences on our health, our economy, and the infrastructure and natural systems on which we all depend.  Higher average temperature leads to worse air quality, and in turn more hospital admissions and premature deaths, particularly among children.  It leads to the spread of vector-borne diseases that were once only problems in the tropics.  It leads to more frequent intense storms, which can damage our homes and threaten our lives with high winds and flooding.  It also threatens our economy.  A 10-year flood in Allegheny County costs over $8 billion to clean up,[2] and that is money that can’t be invested in growing our regional economy.  These damages will only become more severe if we don’t curtail carbon pollution.  Agriculture currently employs more people in Pennsylvania than extraction of coal, oil, and gas combined.[3]  The sector is projected to suffer from extreme heat, droughts and storms, and could shed many thousands of jobs.  These are but a few examples of the impacts that will touch every aspect of our lives.

It has been recently estimated that allowing global average temperatures to rise by 3 degrees Celsius, rather than 2 degrees (which we are already very likely to experience), will reduce annual economic productivity by 1% per year.[4]   This equates to over $6 billion per year in lost productivity in Pennsylvania.  That is from a one degree differential; even higher temperatures are quite likely if no additional action is taken, and the economic losses would accelerate.  It has also been estimated that every decade of delay in taking action to reduce climate disrupting pollution increases mitigation costs by about 40%.[5]

Pennsylvania makes an outsized contribution to climate disruption.  Pennsylvania is the source of about 1% of global carbon pollution,[6] despite comprising less than 0.2% of the world’s population.  While it is true that neither Pennsylvania nor the United States can solve the climate disruption problem on our own, it is also obvious that due to our disproportionate contribution to the problem, our national leadership on the issue is necessary if we are to reach an international solution, and Pennsylvania will be a key part of a national solution.

  III.            Meeting Clean Power Plan Requirements

On June 2, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency introduced a proposal that would limit, for the first time, the carbon pollution from existing power plants.  The draft rules for Pennsylvania require a reduction in carbon pollution intensity (or pounds of pollution per MWh of electricity) by 31% between 2012 and 2030.

We are well on our way to meeting this target, according to our internal analysis.  Coal power plant retirements that have occurred or been announced since 2012 will achieve at least 14% of the required reduction.  Our existing energy efficiency requirement for utilities, if continued at current levels, will achieve an additional 14%, while the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards will achieve more than 23% of our requirement.  Together, these three tranches get us more than halfway to Pennsylvania’s goal, just by maintaining the status quo.  If we increase our clean energy requirement to 20% per year by 2020, and our efficiency target to 1.5% per year, we would achieve about 96% of our required reduction.  These higher targets would merely put us on par with most other states in the northeast.

  IV.            Benefits of Clean Energy and Efficiency

In addition to reducing carbon pollution from the electric sector, efficiency and clean, renewable energy offer numerous other benefits.  I want to focus on the benefits of renewable energy specifically, because it is often misunderstood.

a.     Renewable Energy Reduces Electricity Prices

Numerous studies have shown that addition of renewable energy into the electricity mix causes the most expensive, least efficient fossil fuel generators to operate less, which lowers electricity cost.  Most recently, it was found that the eleven states with the highest amount of wind energy installed have seen electricity prices decrease slightly since 2008, while in the remaining states, the price of electricity has increased by nearly 8% over the same time.[7]  A Pennsylvania-specific analysis of a hypothetical doubling of our renewable energy targets projected that savings from price suppression would outstrip direct costs by a factor of at least 2:1.[8]

b.     Renewable Energy is Reliable

Already, the states of Iowa and South Dakota get more than 20% of their electricity from wind power, but we can go much farther than that.  PJM, the operator of the regional grid, has concluded that we can get at least 30% of our energy from wind and solar by 2026 with no reliability problems, minimal changes to the transmission infrastructure, and net savings on wholesale energy prices.[9]  The non-partisan Regulatory Assistance Project reviewed eleven studies by respected firms and concluded that renewable energy levels well over 50% are feasible given current technology.[10]

Supporters of coal often point to the extreme cold snaps of January 2014 as a reason to continue reliance on coal.  Putting aside for the moment the fact that a polar vortex is a predicted result of rising artic temperatures and melting polar ice that will increase in frequency with warmer global temperatures, it must be noted that coal did not perform particularly well during that time.  In fact, while 22% of the total generating capacity in PJM territory was unavailable during the most critical time, over 1/3 of that total (13.7 gigawatts) was coal capacity.[11]  This included the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, the Bruce Mansfield Generating Station.  According to a May PJM report, only two types of resources performed better than expected during this extreme event: demand response and wind power.[12]  Beyond PJM, wind power was also critical to preventing blackouts in the Midwest and in Texas during the polar vortex.[13]

c.      Renewable Energy Creates Jobs

Numerous studies have also shown that clean energy investments create more jobs per dollar spent, per megawatt of capacity, and per megawatt-hour of generation than comparable investments in fossil fuels.  There are already more workers in the solar and wind industries in this country than there are in the coal industry, despite coal being responsible for a much larger share of the current electricity mix.[14]  It has been projected that a transition to a 100% clean energy economy in Pennsylvania by 2050, including maximizing energy efficiency, would create half a million 40-year jobs, which is more than 10 times the number the coal industry currently supports.[15]  Widely distributed sources of energy also offer important tax revenue streams for rural towns and communities, helping keep schools, libraries, and firehouses open.

We recognize that even though the transition to cleaner forms of energy will be a net benefit to the Commonwealth, there are some coal-dependent communities that will be disproportionately impacted by this transition.  We support an effort by leaders at the federal, state, and local levels to work to understand the needs of these communities and their workers, and to develop fully funded programs to aid in the transition.  We cannot afford to postpone the transition to cleaner energy, but we also cannot put all the impacts on the shoulders of a few while the rest enjoy the benefits.

Thank you for your time,

Thomas Schuster

Senior Campaign Representative

The Sierra Club

PO Box 51

Windber, PA 15963

(814) 467-2614

tom.schuster@sierraclub.org

---

[1] http://riskybusiness.org/report/overview/regions/northeast

[2] National Conference of State Legislatures, Assessing the Costs of Climate Change, http://www.ncsl.org/print/environ/ClimateChangePA.pdf

[3] US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2012 statistics

[4] Multiple sources, cited in The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem Climate Change, July 2104: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/the_cost_of_delaying_action_to_stem_climate_change.pdf

[5] Id.

[6] 2009 Pennsylvania Climate Change Action Plan.  The 2013 update to the plan did not calculate our share of global emissions.

[7] http://awea.files.cms-plus.com/AWEA%20White%20Paper-Consumer%20Benefits%20final.pdf

[8] Black &Veatch, “Assessment of a 15 percent Pennsylvania Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard”: http://pennfuture.org/UserFiles/File/Legislation/HB80SB92_Report201001.pdf

[9] http://pjm.com/~/media/committees-groups/task-forces/irtf/postings/pris-executive-summary.ashx

[10] http://www.raponline.org/document/download/id/7175

[11] http://www.pjm.com/~/media/documents/reports/20140509-analysis-of-operational-events-and-market-impacts-during-the-jan-2014-cold-weather-events.ashx

[12] Id. at 20

[13] http://www.altenerg.com/back_issues/janfeb2014-ftr.htm

[14] AWEA U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report 2010; Solar Foundation National Solar Jobs Census 2010; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[15] http://thesolutionsproject.org/infographic/#pa

It’s Electric!

From September 15^th to the 21^st, the country is going electric. Why? The third week of September celebrates the fourth annual National Drive Electric Week. It’s a nationwide celebration to increase awareness of today’s widespread accessibility of plug-in vehicles. To emphasize the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, test-drive events and other related activities will be held in cities from coast to coast and abroad. Approximately 100 cities and 30,000 people participated in 2013. This year, 113 events are registered in 39 states. National organizers including the Sierra Club, Plug In America, and the Electric Auto Association are teaming up with local groups across the country to bring you the best event possible. 

Plug In America president Richard Kelly stresses, “…you do not have to have an electric car to take part in National Drive Electric Week. That’s the point—to introduce [electric vehicles] to prospective buyers who haven’t experienced the thrill of instant torque and a quiet, clean ride, right past the gas station.”

Benefits of going electric:

-Fun to drive

-Less expensive

-More convenient to fuel

-Better for the environment

-Promote local jobs

-Reduce dependence on foreign oil

National Drive Electric Week activities will vary by city. For more information on dates and times, click here. For city-by-city locations and details, visit driveelectricweek.org. 

You can also volunteer at a National Drive Electric Week event in your city, town, or school.

Hope to see you out! 

Stay Up to Date: Pittsburgh International Turns to Fracking

The PA Chapter's official stance on this issue is a moratorium on new leasing. However, we would like to open this up for discussion. Fracking at an airport is a unique case--no residential concerns. The fiscal benefits are numerous but in Pittsburgh's case, they are its saving grace. Please respectfully share your thoughts and opinions on this topic.