A proposal to address carbon dioxide emissions from the electric power sector has taken center stage in Harrisburg. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has drafted a proposed rulemaking to link Pennsylvania with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (aka “RGGI”) – a regional market-based platform that has, for over a decade, proven to both reduce emissions and further economic investment and growth. RGGI’s operation is similar to other successful emission reduction programs that Pennsylvania has participated in.

PEC has long supported Pennsylvania’s participation RGGI. Carbon pricing is one of the most effective and efficient ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. RGGI is central to our energy and climate platform, and we have testified (House and Senate) before Committees in the General Assembly on this issue.

In September the DEP proposed rulemaking was approved for public review by the state Environmental Quality Board. However, legislation was advanced in the General Assembly that would have allowed the legislature to block it or any rulemaking that addressed the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. While the legislature already has the ability to review and abrogate rulemakings, this legislation was particularly obstructive because it established a review process that would give the legislature to ability to stop the rulemaking proposal through mere inaction. Governor Wolf vetoed the legislation, but it may be taken up again by the Assembly before the end of this year.

PEC opposes this bill. Despite acknowledgment, often tacit, that climate change presents a very real and immediate threat to Pennsylvania, there has been no action taken by the General Assembly to address it. In 2008 the legislature passed a law (based in part on a report that PEC issued) requiring recurring climate impact assessments and policy recommendations be developed, and time and time again the calls generated through those efforts have gone unheeded.

The consequences are far ranging. Not only with what we can and should do to reduce emissions, but also how we can best position our communities and economy in the ongoing energy transformation – one that will potentially leave Pennsylvania behind. Like climate change, it’s already happening.

Without question, linking to RGGI is only one of many policy actions needed to point Pennsylvania toward a ‘net zero’ energy future. But what it does is start the commitment. It also provides the means to kickstart essential emission reduction technologies like carbon capture, attract further business investment, deploy renewable energy, expand energy efficiency and consumer programs, and help communities and workers. The legislature can help leverage those opportunities to create even stronger benefits.

All things we should be doing more than just talking about.
PEC was pleased to participate in a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing today on the growth of outdoor recreation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Frank Maguire, Director of Trails and Recreation, highlighted both PEC’s report on the surge in trail usage as well as the importance of the recreational economy to Pennsylvania – which itself has adapted during these unprecedented times.

The hearing was particularly timely given that the General Assembly will soon be making decisions on the state budget, with potentially drastic implications for state programs that support our trails and public lands. Without question, the pandemic has underscored that these resources are essential.

The hearing will be archived on the Committee’s website.
TrailOff is a free app that offers GPS-activated audio storytelling for ten Circuit Trails in and around Philadelphia.

Created by PEC in collaboration with Swim Pony, a performance art company, and Toasterlab, a technology firm, TrailOff aims at getting new and diverse users out onto the region’s trails and changing the stories we associate with them.

Each story is fiction written from the perspective of a local author who demonstrates both rigorous artistic practice and connections to communities traditionally underserved by environmental programming.
When LTV shuttered its Hazelwood Works plant in 1997, the site was one among dozens of brownfields targeted for redevelopment by the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and local foundations. 23 years later, the property now known as Hazelwood Green is one of the last such efforts that have not yet come to fruition. That’s about to change.

This fall, the master planning process will begin for the restoration of the riverfront parcel, comprising about 21 acres and extending 1.3 miles along the Monongahela. With funding from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and site owner Almono LP, PEC is helping to gather community input that will ensure the master plan reflects the wishes, values, and needs of neighborhood residents.
In celebration of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s 50th anniversary, PEC has commissioned a photo essay by photojournalist Jeff Swensen portraying the special places and landscapes at the heart of our work. These images convey the beauty of our state's natural and built environments, as well as the challenges facing them, and the role they play in the lives of Pennsylvanians.

Find more stories, sounds, and images collected as part of our year-long anniversary celebration here.
For the better part of a century, the Hazelwood neighborhood was one of Pittsburgh’s most important industrial centers. That all changed with the 1997 closure of the LTV steel plant on the site now known as Hazelwood Green. Now, as a decades-long redevelopment effort gathers momentum, the neighborhood is reimagining its relationship with the Monongahela River.
A reckoning over RGGI, outdoor recreation and COVID, bipartisan love for community solar, and clearing a path for E-bikes: Legal & Government Affairs VP John Walliser reviews the PEC policy agenda heading into what promises to be an eventful fall in Harrisburg.
The Pennsylvania Legacies podcast features conversations with community leaders, experts, thinkers, and citizens on the most important environmental and conservation issues facing Pennsylvania.

New episodes are posted every other Friday at pecpa.org/audio and are available on most podcast platforms.
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It is difficult to recall when the Pennsylvania Environmental Council – better known as PEC – first entered my awareness, but it’s been a while. OK, make that quite a while. Decades.

During that time I’ve attended their conferences that focused upon environmental issues and land- or water-use topics; participated in their outdoor-recreation development programs; gotten to know a number of their staff members; and received countless news releases articulating their positions on legislation and governmental actions – or lack of action.
On this week’s Regional Roundup…a new immersive writing project called TrailOff – it’s an app containing stories that are paired with Philly-area hiking trails. Each trail features a different narrated story that matches up with where listeners are along their hike. Contributing writers include such as Carmen Maria Machado and Denise Valentine. The project’s organizer, Adrienne Mackey joins us.
 
TrailOff is a collaboration between PEC and Mackey’s company, SwimPony. The TrailOff segment starts around 32 minutes.
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