2007
PennEnvironment is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. Our professional staff combines independent research, practical ideas and tough-minded advocacy to overcome the opposition of powerful special interests and win real results for Pennsylvania's environment. PennEnvironment draws on 20 years of success in tackling our state's top environmental problems.
Moving Towards a New Energy Future
Pennsylvania can and must move away from our
dependence on oil and other polluting fossil fuels -- and toward a new
energy future that focuses on clean, renewable home-grown energy
sources, conservation and energy efficiency. PennEnvironment supports:
- Establishing efficiency
and conservation policies to cut energy use in
Pennsylvania 10 percent by 2025.
Achieving statewide energy savings of at least 2.5 percent by 2013; implementing
comprehensive “green building” legislation, and developing energy efficiency
standards for appliances.
- Increasing funding for renewable energy including wind and solar, and energy efficiency in Pennsylvania by at least $150 million annually.
- Boosting clean,
renewable energy production in
Pennsylvania by increasing the
Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) Tier I requirement to 25 percent by
2025.
- Halting the addition of
dirty energy sources to the AEPS,
opposing taxpayer handouts to power plants to subsidize pollution reductions
required under existing clean air laws.
Advancing Global Warming Solutions
Global warming could lead to everything from more heat-related deaths
to increased severe flooding in Pennsylvania. Since the Commonwealth
is the third largest contributor to global warming
pollution, just after Texas and California, we have an obligation to reduce these emissions.
PennEnvironment supports:
- Establishing policies
that will achieve the global warming pollution reduction targets supported by
the international scientific community. This includes reducing
Pennsylvania’s global warming
pollution 15-20 percent by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050 in order to help
avoid the worst effects of global warming.
- Halting policies that continue our dependence on dirty, polluting energy sources including liquid coal fuels.
- Providing incentives for
the production and use of clean, sustainable biofuels
for our
vehicles.
Protecting Open Spaces
Pennsylvania continues to lose open spaces and productive family
farmlands to sprawling over-development at an astronomical rate.
PennEnvironment supports policies that will promote “smart growth,” and
preserve open spaces and family farms. We support:
- Promoting local control
of land use decisions by amending the
Municipalities Planning Code’s curative amendment process to give townships a
legal remedy in response to unfavorable court decisions against their zoning
ordinances.
- Protecting townships from developers’ frivolous procedural challenges to zoning and land use ordinances.
- Allowing municipalities to place a temporary moratorium on new development in order to revise or enact a comprehensive plan or zoning ordinance.
- Requiring consistency between county and municipal land use plans in order to promote smart land use decisions.
Protecting Pennsylvania's Waterways
Thirty-five years after the passage of the federal Clean Water Act,
Pennsylvania has nearly 15,000 miles of waterways that are too
polluted for fishing or swimming. This threatens our health, our environment, and our economy. PennEnvironment supports:
- Protecting Pennsylvania's riperian buffer zones in order to preserve our rivers, streams and aquatic ecosystems from encroaching development.
- Advancing stronger protections for waterways that supply us with our drinking water, and requiring broader testing and notification of pollutants that could be found in source waters.
- Protecting Lake Erie, one of the state's greatest natural resources, by passing legislation authorizing Pennsylvania to join the Great Lakes Compact to manage and protect these important waterways.
Saving State Parks, State Forests and Historic Places
Pennsylvania is home to a
spectacular system of state parks, state forests and historically important wild
places like the Appalachian
Trail. These areas provide
habitat for native species, recreational opportunities for millions of people,
and many have longstanding historic importance. For these reasons, we must
preserve the Commonwealth’s state parks and forests. We support:
- Preserving Pennsylvania's portion of the Appalachian Trail by requiring municipalities along the Trail to enact and enforce land use policies that will preserve its integrity.
- Protecting Pennsylvania's state parks and forests from oil and gas drilling, mining and logging. PennEnvironment opposes legislative efforts that will facilitate access to public lands for these destructive practices.
- Creating a dedicated and sustainable funding source for Pennsylvania's land conservation programs like Growing Greener II and the Keystone Fund, and stopping efforts to raid funding from these programs or other essential environmental programs.
Promoting Healthy Communities
Pennsylvanians are barraged with toxic pollution in the products we buy, the food we eat, in our surrounding environment and due to the state's extensive industrial history. This toxic pollution threatens our health and environment. To reduce this pollution, PennEnvironment supports:
- Fully funding the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA) through a dedicated funding source in order to cleanup Pennsylvania's toxic dumpsites.
- Reauthorizing the funding for Pennsylvania's county-wide recycling programs which play a crucial role in reducing the Commonwealth's waste stream.
- Developing programs to help Pennsylvania's family farmers convert to organic farming and reduce the use of polluting pesticides and fertilizers.
