Environmentalists and conservation groups were pleased last week when Rep. Greg Vitali of Delaware County introduced the State Forest Natural Gas Lease Moratorium Act (HB 2235). This bill provides “a moratorium on leasing State forest lands for the purposes of natural gas exploration, drilling or production; imposing duties on the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and providing for report contents.”

Representatives from SW Pennsylvania who co-sponsored Vitali’s bill are Dan Frankel (Squirrel Hill), Bill Kortz (Dravosburg), and Bill DeWeese (Waynesburg). These Representatives deserve our thanks, as does Rep. Levdansky. Constituents in other districts are urged to contact your representative and encourage them to support the State Forest gas drilling moratorium bill, HB2235.
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By a unanimous and final vote, on February 2 Pittsburgh City Council passed the first part of the Economic Development Reform package. At issue was the need for fair wages to be paid to workers in new developments funded in part by public funds, where a fair wage is seen as the prevailing wage in non-subsidized businesses.

The coalition of community, environmental union, faith-based organizations and unions, led by Pittsburgh United, is now turning its attention to the environmental part of the development reform package. Key components of this segment include curtailment of diesel fuel emissions during construction, limitation of storm water run-off and provision of open spaces. The ‘good government’ part of the reform package will deal with transparency and public participation in the approval of new development.

According to the latest quarterly report of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the generation of electrical power using wind turbines is increasing at an encouraging rate in the US. The increase in the US in 2009 was 39%, or nearly 10,000 megawatts - enough to serve 2.4 million homes. As of September 2009, Texas had the largest wind-powered generation capacity at 9,410 MW, followed by Iowa (3,679 MW), California (2,794 MW), Washington (1,980 MW), and Minnesota (1,809 MW), and Pennsylvania had 748 MW of installed capacity. To put this in perspective, the Bruce Mansfield coal-fired plant in Beaver County has a capacity of 2,640 MW.
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In terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of $43,102 in 2007, the United States is the second wealthiest nation in the world. Yet according to a recent report, it falls way back in terms of environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. This raises the question of wealth, national priorities, and commitment to environmental stewardship, as discussed later.
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Michael Brune

What distinguishes the Sierra Club from most other environmental organizations is the grassroots nature of its structure. Setting he policies of the Club is the volunteer Board of Directors elected by the general membership. Responsible for implementing those policies and serving as the national spokesperson of the Sierra Club is the Executive Director. Carl Pope has served in this post since 1992, and is now being replaced by 38-year old Michael Brune.

Brune’s first environmental job was as an organizer for Greenpeace. After four years, he joined the Coastal Rainforest Coalition, an organization since renamed ForestEthics. In 1998, Brune joined Rainforest Action Network, where he has served the last seven years as executive director. He is the author of “Coming Clean — Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal“ (Sierra Club Books, 2008) and blogs regularly for the Huffington Post, SolveClimate, and Daily Kos.

The spill of over a billion pounds of coal ash sludge from the TVA’s Kingston Power Plant in Tennessee on Dec. 22, 2008 focused the nation’s attention on the storage and treatment of coal ash waste from coal-burning power plants. The United States generates 130 million tons of coal ash each year, and this ash is stored in more than 550 impoundments across the country. Pollutants in coal ash lead to cancer, organ failure and nervous system damage. Since the TVA incident, the EPA has rated 49 of the impoundments as High Hazard Potential sites and 60 as Significant Hazard.
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The PA Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) is calling for public comment on proposed rulemaking that will elevate the status of the Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans), Blue-spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale), and Northern Redbelly Dace (Phoxinus eos) to endangered. Endangered signifies that a species is in imminent danger of extinction or extirpation throughout their range in Pennsylvania.
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There are about sixty-eight Congressional caucuses in the House of Representatives, providing forums for issues and legislative agendas.

Apparently believing that the interests of the coal industry were being neglected, Rep. Jason Altmire and West Virginian Republican Shelley Capito have added another caucus to the list: the Congressional Coal Caucus. Tim Holden (D-PA), Denny Rehberg (R-MT), John Salazar (D-CO), and John Shimkus (R-IL) are also members of the new caucus.
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The day after the State of the Union speech, the Obama administration announced an $8 billion program “to develop America’s first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service”. In a press release applauding the move, the Sierra Club stated:

“These high-speed rail projects will put tens of thousands of Americans to work on important projects across the country. High speed rail will provide a needed transportation choice for Americans that is fast and convenient and will reduce carbon emissions and air pollution and cut our dangerous dependence on oil.

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The Laurel Highlands 70-mile trail along the top of Laurel Ridge is probably the most popular hiking trail in the region. Stretching from Ohiopyle in the south to the Connemaugh River in the north, the trail has been a gem for forty years. But forty years has been too long for the footbridge that carries the trail high across the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
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The trails in Pittsburgh’s major parks are getting a well-deserved upgrade this year. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the city public works department announced a $3 million program to improve the trail systems in the four major parks. Funds from individuals, foundations and the state DCNR will be used for projects ranging from repair of the 100-year old trails in Schenley Park to the construction of new trails in the Nine Mile Run area of Frick Park.

The Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project welcome the DEP’s decision to invalidate the four-year old air plan permit that would have allowed Robinson Power Company to build the 272-megawatt Beech Hollow Power Plant in Robinson Township, Washington County.
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On January 20, the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition called for Congressional action to prevent rising rates of chronic disease resulting from the growing number and amount of unregulated toxins in our environment. The number and variety of organizations listed in the coalition illustrates how important this issue has become. (more…)

First, for your possible amusement is Steven Colbert’s satirical look at mining for coal, with a blast at the EPA:
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While a Climate Change/Energy bill has attracted most attention, the progress made in the first year of President Obama’s administration has been largely ignored by the opinion makers (more…)