Recent action

Congress raises fuel-efficiency standards

In a historic victory in the fight against global warming, Congress passed a federal energy bill in December that will raise fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

In addition to saving consumers billions of dollars at the gas pump, the new standards are expected to reduce global warming pollution levels by 424 million tons a year by 2020—the equivalent of taking 77 million of today’s cars off the road.

This was a victory many years in the making for PennEnvironment staff and activists, who helped convince Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter and the majority of Pennsylvania’s representatives to support the bill. Its passage represented one of the largest federal environmental victories in recent history.

Learn more.

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Legislation to protect Appalachian Trail clears hurdle

On Feb. 5, PennEnvironment-backed legislation to protect Pennsylvania’s portion of the Appalachian Trail was approved by the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

More and more, encroaching development threatens the Appalachian Trail—even though many scientists believe that the Trail may contain the greatest level of biodiversity for any piece of America’s National Park System.

House Bill 1281 was introduced by state Rep. Bob Freeman (Easton) and was unanimously passed the state House last December. This proposal would require that municipalities close to the trail adopt and implement zoning and land use ordinances in harmony with protecting the Appalachian Trail.

“The Appalachian Trail is a treasured part of Pennsylvania’s natural heritage,” said Rep. Freeman. “We need to take steps to guarantee that we can protect it for future generations of Pennsylvanians.”

Learn more.

PennEnvironment is advocating greater protections for the Appalachian Trail.

Mission statement

We all want clean air, clean water and open space. But it takes independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our environment, especially when powerful interests stand in the way of environmental progress. That’s the idea behind PennEnvironment. We focus exclusively on protecting Pennsylvania’s air, water and open space. We speak out and take action at the local, state and national levels to improve the quality of our environment and our lives.

Credits

Photos: Top Banner: Krista Mackey under license from Istockphoto.com; Heavy downpours linked to global warming: Theresa Labriola, Sidebar: staff; Jonathan under creative commons licensing from flickr.com; State hazardous sites cleanup program reauthorized: Alex Neauville under license from shutterstock.com; U.S. EPA; NREL; Energy bills moving in Harrisburg: Shutterstock; Otmar Smit under license from Shutterstock.com; Recent action: Ryan Arnaudin under license from shutterstock.com.

Editor: David Masur. Contributors: Cecily Anderson, Justin Boyles, Zach Cullimore, Matthew Curtis, Adam Garber, Sara Landis, Ethan Lavine, Jenna Perry Leschuk, Ryan Moeckly, Leana Nordstrom, Dan Platt, Nathan Proctor, Drew Stephan, Jenne Turner, Chris Wand, Nathan Willcox. Publications Director: Richard J. Hannigan. Design: Public Interest GRFX (215) 985-1113.

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Take action

Send an e-mail your state senator and ask them to support House Bill 1281, the Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail Act.