PA Environment Digest Blog: Wednesday PA Environment & Energy NewsClips 8.3.22

Are You Telling Your Story?

House returns to session September 12, 13, 14

Senate returns to session September 19, 20, 21

-- Conventional Oil & Natural Gas Drilling: An Industrial Machine Moving Across The PA Countryside Leaving Behind Big Liabilities & Spreading Pollution Everywhere It Goes [PaEN]

Do you believe drilling conventional oil and natural gas wells is a clean business? The real picture is not pretty or idyllic.

While the work is honorable, the people who run the conventional oil and natural gas companies have created an industrial machine that cuts through farms and forests-- even Pennsylvania’s only national forest-- punching holes in the ground, generating and spreading pollution, creating waste dumps, producing wastewater that has to be managed for decades to come and imposing legal liabilities for plugging those wells on well owners and state taxpayers with every new well they drill.

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: Can Environmental Violations Define Oil & Gas Companies As Bad Actors? A Judgment Awaits

-- Republicans On House Committee Disapprove Final Reg. To Reduce VOC/Methane Emissions From Unconventional Oil & Gas Facilities Risking $500 Million In Federal Highway Funds [PaEN]

-- Public Source: Dead Creek Revival: Blacklick Creek Has Flowed Orange For As Long As Locals Can Remember, Can A Coal-Killed Waterway Live Again?

-- Financial Times: Shale Patch Pioneer Chesapeake Energy To Ditch Oil In Favour Of Natural Gas

-- 30+ PA Environmental Advocates Release Shared Vision For Pennsylvania's Environment & Communities As A Guide For Candidates For Governor, Senate, House [PaEN]

-- PA Capital-Star: State Lawmakers, Advocates Present Shared Environmental Action Plan

-- U.S. Dept. Of Energy Grant Will Support Field Test Of Next-Generation Energy Efficiency Retrofit System On Two Homes In Pittsburgh [PaEN]

-- DEP Collects $100,000 Penalty From Harsco Corp. For Improperly Disposing Of 375,618 Tons Of Metal Slag In Armstrong County [PaEN]

-- Scranton Times: DEP Asks Throop, Dunmore Officials For Input On Keystone Landfill’s Discharge Proposal

-- PA Resources Council Hosts Household Chemical Collection Event Aug. 20 In Allegheny County [PaEN]

-- TribLive: Household Hazardous Chemical Collection Set For Aug. 20 In Allegheny County

-- Inquirer: 150+ Gallons Of Gasoline Found In West Philadelphia Home

-- DCED Touts Investment In Silk Mill Apartment Project As Part Of Flood Recovery Efforts In Bloomsburg, Columbia County [PaEN]

-- NPR: Floods Are Getting More Common, Do You Know Your Risk?

-- DEP Took Action On 743 Permits, 98% Within Permit Decision Guarantee Deadlines; Conducted 1,324 Inspections; Responded To 1 Environmental Emergency Last Week

-- WNEP: Kids In Lackawanna County Discovering The World Of Water Thanks To A Program Supported By PA American Water

-- TribLive: Nature-Focused Preschool Relocates From Fox Chapel To 7-Acre Campus

-- PennLive - Marcus Schneck: Parts Of PA’s Most Biologically Diverse Watershed Saved

-- PennLive - Marcus Schneck: What’s Driving Bee Decline On Pennsylvania Farms?

-- Scranton Times: Butterflies Burst Out Along The Hazleton Rail Trail

-- Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Music On The Mountain Sept. 10 With The Gabriel Chamber Ensemble [PaEN]

U.S. Senate Climate, Energy Bill

-- TribLive Guest Essay: Bipartisanship On Energy, Jobs Better Path Than Reconciliation Gamesmanship - PA Chamber Of Business & Industry

-- Reuters: Equitrans To Complete U.S. Mountain Valley Pipeline In 2023 [As A Result Of U.S. Senate Deal]

-- Reuters: Fossil Fuel Side Deal For U.S. Climate Bill Slammed By Green Groups

6th Oil/Natural Gas Spike: True Energy Independence Means Renewables

[There Is No Limit To What Oil/Natural Gas Industry Can Make You Pay]

-- MarketPlace: Why Aren’t Oil Companies Drilling On Their 9,000 Federal Land Leases?

-- AP: Cold Showers, No Lights: Europe Saves As Russian Natural Gas Wanes

-- Reuters: Big Oil, Natural Gas Companies Offer Big Returns, But Keep Spending Tight

“The West's energy giants are set to return a record $30 billion to investors after reporting bumper profits in the second quarter of the year following a surge in energy prices.

“But the top five Western oil and gas companies have shied away from investing more of their combined record profits of nearly $60 billion in new production as they weigh the impact of recession and climate change on future fossil fuel demand.”

American Rescue Plan Funding

-- $11 Billion In Federal American Rescue Plan Funding To PA State Government, Local Governments Has Yet To Be Invested. What’s Your Community Doing?

PA Politics - Everything Is Connected

-- AP: PA Supreme Court Upholds PA’s Mail-In Voting Law Expansion

-- PennLive - Charles Thompson: PA Supreme Court Upholds No-Excuse, Mail-In Voting In PA

-- Spotlight PA: PA Supreme Court Says PA’s Mail-In Voting Law Can Stay In Place

-- TribLive Editorial: Can We Move On From Challenges To Mail-In Voting Law Now?

-- WHYY: PA Giving Cash To Counties For Elections, Some Say The Strings Attached Might Make Their Jobs Harder

-- WITF: Berks County Election Director Resigns After Scrutiny, Lawsuit Over Election Problems

-- Inquirer: Shapiro, Mastriano Agree - Both Want Lower Corporate Taxes In PA

-- Inquirer: Fetterman Has A Blue Collar Image, Republicans Say His Comfortable Upbringing Tells A Different Story

-- Erie Times Guest Essay: Dr. Oz Needs To Stop His PA U.S. Senate Run, We Want Him Home In New Jersey - Bill Pascrell, Jr.