PA ranks third worst for global warming pollution

Pennsylvania created more global warming pollution from fossil fuel combustion in 2004 than all but two other states, according to “The Carbon Boom,” a PennEnvironment report released in April. The report also found that Pennsylvania’s global warming pollution increased by 5 percent between 1990 and 2004.

“Pennsylvania is a big part of the global warming problem, which means we have a big part to play in pushing for solutions,” said Nathan Willcox, PennEnvironment’s energy and clean air advocate. In order to avoid global warming’s worst impacts, scientists have said that we need to cut global warming pollution by 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. PennEnvironment has been meeting with decision-makers to enact the policies that will ensure Pennsylvania and the nation achieve these pollution reductions.

PennEnvironment scores local legislators

Pennsylvania Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz voted for the environment 100 percent of the time in the 109th Congress, the only Pennsylvania member of Congress to do so, according to PennEnvironment’s annual Congressional Scorecard on major environmental issues released this summer.

PennEnvironment is distributing the individual Congressional Scorecards to nearly 100,000 households in Pennsylvania as part of our campaign to educate the public about the voting records of their elected officials.

“Again and again, Congresswoman Schwartz has put the environment ahead of powerful, polluting interests. In the 109th Congress she successfully fought to keep our beautiful coasts free of off-shore oil drilling, defend protections for endangered species like the polar bear and the recently recovered bald eagle, and make polluters pay to clean up contaminated groundwater,” said David Masur, PennEnvironment director.