The House State Government Committee is scheduled to meet September 17 to consider 2 bills that are part of the House Republican Energize PA natural gas use subsidy package--
-- House Bill 1107 (O'Neal-R-Washington)- creates 5 member commission confirmed by the Senate to “administer the permitting and plan approval processes vested in [DEP] by law,” including promulgating regulations establishing permitting requirements and environmental standards and taking action on individual permit applications.
It would require the transfer of all appropriations, equipment, files used by DEP to review permit applications to the new Commission.
However, the bill specifically says, “The transfer of resources as required by this subsection shall not include current or displace employees of the department.” Essentially, the bill requires all existing DEP employees handling permit reviews to be fired, although they could apply to the Commission for a job.
The bill does not require Commission employees to be covered by civil service requirements, so they can all be political appointments.
[Editor’s Note: DEP issues, on average, 31,000 permits and approvals a year, which means the 5 people on the Commission would have to review and make a decision on a permit /approval every 17 minutes, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. They should be able to handle that, right? And won’t delay the process at all, right?
[Of course House Republicans have provided zero assistance to support real solutions to the permit review issues at DEP, like money to convert to electronic submission and review of permit applications, money to train consultants who routinely submit up to half their permit applications incomplete or with technical mistakes that can delay permit reviews by 6 weeks or more.
[A lot more could be said, but let's just leave it at..... heavy sigh showing disappointment.]; and
-- House Bill 1106 (Puskaric-R-Allegheny)- requires DEP approval of any permit regulating air quality, waste, erosion and sedimentation and dam safety and encroachments within 30 days without regard to public review of permits, creates a new bureaucracy in the form of a “referee” to decide disputes between DEP and applicants over application completeness.
[Editor’s Note: These bills are part of the continued House Republican assault on effective environmental permit reviews without regard to common sense or the real issues holding up permit decisions, like Republican cuts in DEP’s General Fund appropriations by 40 percent over the last decade and the resulting loss of nearly 30 percent of its staff positions.
[Why is it that today’s Republicans think the first thing they need to do on any issue is to eliminate environmental protection? This is “Government Done Wrong.” Republicans used to govern based on facts. Worked pretty well.
[Facts uncovered by the House Environmental Committee in hearings this year show permit review problems at DEP are much different than Republican press releases would tell you they are. See Related Articles below.]
The meeting will be held in Room 205 Ryan Building starting at the call of the Chair, meaning at any time after the House convenes on September 17. Committee meetings are usually webcast live online.
Rep. Garth Everett (R-Lycoming) serves as Majority Chair of the House State Government Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5270 or sending email to: geverett@pahousegop.com. Rep. Kevin Boyle (D-Montgomery) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-783-4944 or sending email to: RepKevinBoyle@pahouse.net.
(Photo: Rep. Everett, Majority Chair of the Committee.)
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