The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee is scheduled to meet Monday, October 6 to consider two bad environmental bills-- House Bill 1565 (Hahn-R-Northampton) eliminating the nearly 4 year old requirement for stream buffers in High Quality and Exceptional Value streams and House Bill 2354 (Snyder-D-Fayette) which authorizes one House of the General Assembly to veto any greenhouse gas emission reduction plan required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Committee failed to list House Bill 343 (Miller-R-York) which would set standards for the construction and abandonment of private water wells for any action.
The PA Environmental Council put out a letter Monday to all members of the Senate opposing House Bill 2354 saying action on the bill was premature and not in the best interests of the Commonwealth.
House Bill 1565 is opposed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA, PA Environmental Council, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the PA Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Fish and Boat Commission, PA Council of Trout Unlimited, PA Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, PA League of Women Voters and former DEP Secretary David E. Hess.
The water well standards legislation-- House Bill 343-- is supported by the PA Environmental Council, DEP Citizens Advisory Council, former DEP Secretary David E. Hess and many other groups and organizations.
Also on the Committee agenda are--
-- House Bill 402 (Pickett-R-Bradford) further providing for the recording of oil and gas leases;
-- House Bill 2278 (Pickett-R-Bradford) requiring semi-annual reporting of oil and gas production;
-- Senate Bill 1061 (Rafferty-R-Montgomery) requiring state buildings to meet green building standards- sponsor summary; and
-- Senate Bill 1481 (Erickson-R-Delaware) prohibiting DEP from prohibiting the vehicular transportation of leachate to an offsite facility for treatment.
The meeting will be in the Rules Committee Room, but off the floor, which means there is no set meeting time.
Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) serves as Majority Chair, who can be reached by sending email to: gyaw@pasen.gov and Sen. John Yudichak (D-Luzerne) serves as Minority Chair and can be reached by sending email to: yudichak@pasenate.com.