PA Environment Digest Blog: Wednesday PA Environment & Energy Articles

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

-- Article I, Section 27 Pennsylvania Constitution [It’s Not A Suggestion]

NOTICE: PA Environment Digest Is CLOSED Wednesday & Thursday

Senate Voting Schedule

March 25

April 20, 21, 22

May 4, 5, 6

June 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30

-- Committee Schedule

House Voting Schedule

March 25

April 13, 14, 15, 27, 28, 29

May 4, 5, 6

June 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

September 28, 29, 30

October 5, 6, 7, 19, 20, 21

November 9, 10

-- Committee Schedule

TODAY’s Calendar Of Events

TODAY 10:00: Agenda Posted. DCNR Conservation and Natural Resources Advisory Council meeting. Room 105 Rachel Carson Building, Harrisburg. 10:00 a.m. Register to join the meeting online. Contact: Nicole Faraguna 717-346-7636 or cnrac-admin@growconservation.com. Read more here on agenda.

March 26-- DCNR Webinar On PA Invasive Replace-ive Program To Replace Invasive Species With Native Trees And Shrubs In Landscape Plantings. 1:00 p.m.

March 27-- PA Solar Center Webinar: Helping Faith Institutions Go Solar With Solar Faithful. Noon to 1:15 p.m.

March 27-- Penn State Extension Advanced Stream Repair Webinar Series (1 of 5) - Getting Started With Advanced Stream Repair. Noon to 1:00 p.m.

March 28-- 2026 Watershed Congress Along The Schuylkill River. Alvernia College, Reading.

March 31-- Agenda Posted. DEP Cleanup Standards Scientific Advisory Board meeting. 9:30 a.m. Contact: Brie Sterling bsterling@pa.gov.

April 1-- Draft Agenda Posted. DEP Radiation Protection Advisory Committee meeting. Room 105 Rachel Carson Building. 9:00 a.m. Contact: John S. Chippo jchippo@pa.gov. (formal notice)

April 1-- Lower Susquehanna RiverKeeper Speaker Series: Dr. Dorothy Merritts, Dr. Robert Walter And The Potential Of Restoring Buried Pre-Colonial Landscapes And Removal Of Legacy Sediments. RiverKeeper Office, Wrightsville, York County.

April 7-- DEP Public Hearing On Shell Petrochemical Plant Air Quality Plan Approval Application. Penn State Beaver Auditorium, 100 University Drive in Monaca, Beaver County. 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Read more here.

April 16-- DCED PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council meeting. Penn State, State College. 10:00. Contact: Adam Walters 717-214-6548 or adwalters@pa.gov.

April 30-- DEP Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board meeting. 10:00 a.m. Contact: Todd M. Wallace twallace@pa.gov. (formal notice)

-- PA House Passes Bill To Authorize Public Utility Commission To Regulate A.I. Data Centers To Make Them Pay Their Own Way [PaEN]

-- Inquirer: PA House Members Make Their First Move To Regulate A.I. Data Centers, As Industry Booms

-- City & State PA: PA House Lawmakers Approve A.I. Data Center Regulation Bill

-- PA House Passes Bill To Expand Solar Energy Electric Generation To Warehouses, Distribution Centers [PaEN]

-- PA Community Organizing Summit On A.I. Data Centers April 18 In Pittsburgh [PaEN]

-- Inquirer: What An Oncologist Wants You To Know About Environmental Cancer Risks: Radon, Asbestos, Air Pollution, PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’

-- Chesapeake Bay Journal - Karl Blankenship: EPA Regional Administrator Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey Draws On Farm Experience

-- LancasterOnline: Lancaster County Prepares For Mosquito Season After Record West Nile Virus Cases In 2025

-- TribLive: Ligonier Township Want Ad: Volunteers Needed For Ligonier Beach Cleanup, $15 Million To Make Into Park

-- Post-Gazette Editorial: Enhanced Wildlife Corridors Will Make PA Better For Animals And Humans

-- TribLive: Game Commission Bear Study Aims To Collar 160 Animals Per Year

-- LancasterOnline: Did Mother Bald Eagle Eat Unhatched Egg At Livestreamed Lancaster County Nest?

A.I. /Data Centers

-- PA House Passes Bill To Authorize Public Utility Commission To Regulate A.I. Data Centers To Make Them Pay Their Own Way [PaEN]

-- Inquirer: PA House Members Make Their First Move To Regulate A.I. Data Centers, As Industry Booms

-- City & State PA: PA House Lawmakers Approve A.I. Data Center Regulation Bill

-- PA Community Organizing Summit On A.I. Data Centers April 18 In Pittsburgh [PaEN]

-- WVIA: Residents, Elected Officials Want Gov. Shapiro’s PA Permit Fast Track Program To Slow Down When It Comes To A.I. Data Centers

-- Scranton Times: PPL To Hold March 31 Open House On A.I. Data Center Transmission Line, Infrastructure Projects In Archbald, Luzerne County Paid For By Ratepayers [To Take 3 Years To Build] [PDF of Article]

-- Inquirer: How Some PA Townships Fight A.I. Data Center Next Door

-- Scranton Times: Ransom Twp. Planning Commission Discusses A.I. Data Center Ordinance

-- WESA - Rachel McDevitt: Green Group Calls For Halt To A.I. Data Centers In PA Until New Laws Are Passed

-- LancasterOnline: Lancaster County To Get PA Taxpayer Funds For Emergency Planning Related To Restart Of Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant To Feed Microsoft A.I. Data Centers

-- Utility Dive: NextEra To Develop 9.5 GW Of Natural Gas Power Generation In PA, TX [Still No Details Offered On Data Center Projects]

-- AP: President’s Administration’s $1 Billion Taxpayer Settlement With TotalEnergies Blocks 4 GW Of Much-Needed Wind Power Generation, Diverts Funding To Oil, Natural Gas Development

-- The Center Square: A.I. Infiltrates Health Care In PA, But Concerns And Skepticism Abound

-- AP: Perfect Homework, Blank Stares: Why Colleges Are Turning To Oral Exams To Combat A.I. [PA Highlighted]

Today’s Oil & Gas Violations

-- Today’s Violations: DEP found 9 Raymond D. Langer conventional wells still abandoned, with releases, venting gas in Robinson (8), Findlay (1) Twps., Allegheny County since Jan. 4, 2023-- 1,167 days and counting. Violations continued. DEP inspection reports.

-- Today’s Violation: DEP notified of an estimated 900 gallon drilling mud spill at Blackhill Energy LLC’s Sultana horizontal drilling pipeline project under Mill Creek and into wetlands in Springfield Twp., Bradford County. Violations issued. DEP inspection report. Blackhill Energy had problems with inadvertent returns in a pipeline project in Bradford County in 2025. Read more here.

Gas Explosions

-- Reading Eagle: West Reading Chocolate Factory Natural Gas Explosion: 3 Years Later ‘It Hurts’

International/National Impacts On PA Natural Gas

[Energy Independence Means Renewables]

-- March 25: PA Average AAA Gasoline Price Stayed The Same Today-- 84 Cents/Gallon Higher To $3.95 Since Feb. 27

-- March 25: Average AAA Gasoline Prices: National- $3.98 Ohio- $3.90 PA- $3.95

-- Feb. 27: Average AAA Gasoline Prices: National- $2.98 Ohio- $2.79 PA- $3.11

-- TribLive: High Oil, Natural Gas Prices Could Outlast President War On Iran

-- Inside Climate News: President’s ‘Drill Baby Drill’ Meets Volatile Oil/Natural Gas Market Reality

-- Wall Street Journal: The Oil Supply Crunch From President’s War On Iran Spreading From The Gulf To The Rest Of The World

PA Politics - Everything Is Connected

-- ABC27: PA Republicans Want A Voting SAVE Act Of Their Own, Requiring All Citizens To Have IDs To Show On Demand [‘Papers Please’]