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.

Repowering America and tackling global warming

Pennsylvania must move away from our dependence on oil and other polluting fossil fuels – and toward a new energy future that focuses on clean, renewable energy, and energy efficiency and conservation. This will revitalize our economy, create thousands of “green” jobs, and help tackle the severe threats posed by global warming. Since Pennsylvania is the third largest contributor to global warming pollution, we have an obligation to reduce these emissions. PennEnvironment supports:

• Boosting clean, renewable energy production in Pennsylvania by increasing the Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) Tier I requirement to at least 20 percent by 2025.

• Making our buildings more efficient. Pennsylvania must implement comprehensive “green building” legislation that ensures that new buildings are “zero energy” by 2030; requires new buildings to meet high performance green building standards; requires time-of-sale energy audits for all buildings; and sets goals and provides incentives for time-of-sale energy efficiency upgrades for all buildings.

• Implementing appliance energy efficiency standards. Using existing technology for nearly a dozen commonly used appliances, Pennsylvania could dramatically reduce energy consumption and pollution in the Commonwealth while saving consumers money on their utility bills.

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 productive 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.

• Allowing municipalities to place a temporary moratorium on new development in order to revise or enact a comprehensive plan or zoning ordinance.

• Reauthorizing funding for the Growing Greener II program. A cornerstone program for protecting Pennsylvania’s open spaces, Growing Greener II’s funding has nearly run dry. The General Assembly must take steps to reauthorize Growing Greener II during the upcoming session.

Protecting our waterways

Thirty-five years after the passage of the federal Clean Water Act, Pennsylvania still has nearly 15,000 miles of waterways that are too polluted for fishing, swimming or other recreational activities. This threatens our health, our environment, and our economy. PennEnvironment supports:

• Protecting Pennsylvania’s waterways from natural gas drilling. With the rush to drill in the Marcellus Shale, it is essential to protect Pennsylvania’s streams from excessive water withdrawals, halt the improper release of drilling waste water, and give DEP more tools to regulate drilling pollution.

• Preserving Pennsylvania’s riparian buffer zones in order to protect 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.

Funding and managing our environmental programs

Protecting Pennsylvania’s rich natural history hinges upon the vibrancy and success of its environment programs and departments. Unfortunately, environmental programs often go under-funded or are the first to see budget cuts—while environmentally-degrading practices occur without fees or taxes to pay for the damage they create. Pennsylvania cannot afford to bankrupt the state’s critical environmental programs. PennEnvironment supports: 

• Reauthorizing funding for Pennsylvania’s countywide recycling programs which play a crucial role in reducing the Commonwealth’s waste stream.

• Maintaining funds for Pennsylvania’s environmental programs. Legislators must stop raiding the state’s environmental programs to fund other budget line items.

• Levying fees on environmentally harmful practices. The General Assembly should require companies to pay appropriate fees for mining coal, natural gas and other natural resources from Pennsylvania lands. These fees should be directed toward Pennsylvania’s environmental programs and repairing the environmental damage that these extractive practices have on the state’s air, land and water.