On January 2, the House Speaker named Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) as the new Republican Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
In a January 3 statement, Rep. Metcalfe said, “As chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, I will work to advance legislation that streamlines and downsizes Pennsylvania’s job-killing, regulatory environment, and most importantly, protects taxpayers.
“One disastrous economic policy that will never see the light of day on my watch is the governor’s constant attempts to impose one of the largest energy taxes in the nation,” said Rep. Metcalfe.
He said the Committee’s responsibilities are to address issues involving conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas drilling and development; environmental permitting; coal mining, both underground and surface mining; and “stopping the governor’s most recent attempts to tax Pennsylvania’s over regulated energy producers out of business.”
Rep. Metcalfe has been a champion of regulatory “reform” initiatives as Republican Chair of the House State Government Committee last session.
Rep. Metcalfe said he and House Republicans “took a monumental step forward” and passed by party line votes regulatory “reforms” in May of 2018.
The “reforms” included allowing the General Assembly to kill any regulation by doing nothing (Senate Republicans passed a similar bill), putting an arbitrary cap on the number of regulations, creating a new office to waive penalties for violating state laws if a permit holder “attempts” to comply and requiring a vote of the General Assembly before any “significant” regulation goes into effect (Senate Republicans have a similar bill). Click Here for more.
“Overregulation caused by unelected government bureaucrats is killing family-sustaining jobs, strangling opportunity and stifling economic growth,” reiterated Rep. Metcalfe. “Consequently, more than 153,000 regulatory restrictions have been piling up for decades under both Republican and Democrat governors.
“During the 2019-20 legislative session, I want to ensure that Pennsylvania’s regulations encourage, rather than discourage, the entrepreneurial spirit of hard-working job creators, while protecting the health, wealth and safety of Pennsylvania taxpayers,” said Rep. Metcalfe.
In his January 3 press release, Rep. Metcalfe noted he consistently ranked as the state Legislature’s “No. 1 Conservative,” and remains a leader on the issues of taxpayer protection, the preservation of Second Amendment freedoms, ending Pennsylvania’s illegal alien invasion and outlawing compulsory unionism.
In July 2018, Rep. Metcalfe said he hosted a legislative briefing with President Donald Trump’s top manufacturing and technology advocate, Tom Rossomando, U.S. Small Business Administration, to discuss additional opportunities to partner with the Trump administration to rein in overregulation.
Rep. Metcalfe, who was sworn into his 11th term in office on January 1, said looks forward to his new leadership position as Republican Chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
Although not mentioned in his January 3 release, Rep. Metcalfe has also been an advocate for reducing the authority of the Susquehanna and Delaware river basin commissions to manage water resources across their interstate watersheds saying the agencies were involved in “regulatory overreach.”
Rep. Metcalfe can be contacted by calling 717-783-1707 or by sending email to dmetcalf@pahousegop.com.
Reaction
Penn Future released this statement on the appointment of Rep. Metcalfe-- “Today’s appointment of Rep. Metcalfe by Speaker Turzai as the incoming Chair of the House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee, the first stop in the legislature for any bills seeking to safeguard Pennsylvania’s environment, signals cautious days ahead at best.
“Rep. Metcalfe has no track record of bipartisanship and interest in good government, but instead has shown himself capable of being a roadblock to the forward movement of environmental issues. PennFuture will be watching carefully."
Other Committee Chairs
The Speaker also made appointments to these other related committees--
-- Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Martin Causer (R-Cameron) Click Here for his priorities
-- Consumer Affairs: NEW-Brian Ellis (R-Butler) Click Here for his priorities
-- Game and Fisheries: Keith Gillespie (R-York) Click Here for his priorities
-- Local Government: NEW-Dan Moul (R-Adams) Click Here for his priorities
-- Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness: Stephen E. Barrar (R-Chester)
Click Here for the complete announcement of Republican committee chairs.
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