Legislative Update

The General Assembly returns to Harrisburg today, and both the House and the Senate will be in session the next four weeks. Typically, both chambers are in voting session on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during these weeks. Today is a “non-voting? session day in the House. This means that bills can be moved up on the House calendar by having them formally “read? or “considered? in the chamber in a pro forma session. A bill must be read or considered on three different days in order to be voted by the House or the Senate.

Pennsylvania Clean Vehicles Program

The Senate Transportation Committee is expected to vote on Senate Bill 1025 this Wednesday morning, January 25. Senate Bill 1025, which PennFuture strongly opposes, would eliminate the ability of Pennsylvania to adopt provisions of the Clean Vehicles Program that are stronger than federal standards. If the committee passes Senate Bill 1025, and the bill receives first consideration on the Senate floor that afternoon, it could come up for a vote in the full Senate as early as Tuesday, January 31.

House Bill 2141, which is similar to Senate Bill 1025, was removed from the floor of the House and referred back to the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in December. The committee will hold a hearing on the legislation on Wednesday, February 8.

Full implemention of the Pennsylvania Clean Vehicles Program is imperative. This program will clean our air, protect public health, save consumers money over the life of their vehicles due to better gas mileage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by at least 25 percent when the program is fully implemented.

Give your state senator a call TODAY and urge her/him to keep Pennsylvania’s Clean Vehicles Program. For information about contacting your senator, click here

Budget Process to Start on February 7

Governor Rendell will present his annual budget address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, February 7. The speech will outline the Governor’s spending and policy priorities for the state’s fiscal year which begins on July 1, 2006, and ends on June 30, 2007.

A detailed spending blueprint proposed by the governor will be submitted to the General Assembly. In February and March, the Appropriations Committees in both the House and Senate will hold hearings on the budget and its impact on various state departments and agencies. 

Long nights, short tempers, and marathon negotiating sessions over taxes and spending often mark the last of week of June. Last year’s budget was not completed until the first week of July.

-- Steve Stroman, PennFuture

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing on global warming on January 11, 2006 in Delaware County. Experts Dr. Adam Rose (Penn State University), Dr. Richard Alley (Penn State University), and Rev. Joy Bergey (Pennsylvania Interfaith Climate Change Campaign & PennFuture) were invited to provide testimony at the hearing. In this podcast, Joy Bergey shares a portion of her testimony and speaks to Dr. Alley and the House EREC Chair Rep. William Adolph (R-165). To see additional photos from the hearing and to read Joy's full testimony, click here.

Listen to PennFuture's Baker's Dozen of 2005 top energy stories, with a sprinkling of predictions for 2006. To view the full article, click here.

Listen as PennFuture's Jan Jarrett takes a tour of the 90th annual Pennsylvania State Farm Show in Harrisburg. Jan talks with exhibitors using home-grown Pennsylvania agricultural know-how to forge new ground in the renewable energy arena, helping to lead Pennsylvania to energy independence and boost our economy at the same time. Learn how this year's Farm Show is climate-neutral, thanks to NativeEnergy. Soybeans grown here can be used to fuel vehicles and replace home heating oil. Groups like the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Farmer's Union are working to ensure that family farming in Pennsylvania is good for the land, good for the communities where they are located, and great for long-term growth of our state's economy. Jan has a hard time deciding what culinary delights she will sample at the show's Food Court. And you don't want to miss her stop at the Sand Castle Winery's booth... so be sure to stay tuned until the end! To view more pictures from the Farm Show, click here.

PennFuture's Pittsburgh supporters have been making big news on their own recently.

In a December 26, 2005 front page story on the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh (CDCP) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PennFuture member Jason Vrabel, CDCP Design Fund Manager, is extensively quoted. Speaking about the importance of the work of CDCP, Mr. Vrabel said, "There is almost always real value in community building, developing a common vision, developing a better understanding of the role of design, etc." We agree. And we are proud that Mr. Vrabel has also signed on as a PennFuture member. To read the article, go to http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05360/628053.stm

Another member in the news is Richard St. John, whose new book of poetry, The Pure Inconstancy of Grace, was highlighted in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in the Books Section on Sunday, December 25, 2005.

His book was published when his work attracted the attention of a panel judging the T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry. The Truman State University Press is the publisher. Mr. St. John says that he gets much of his inspiration while being in the real world, during long walks and riding the bus, rather than driving.

Having Mr. St. John as a PennFuture supporter is a true honor. To read a review and a small piece of one poem, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_407024.html

Pennsylvania's Yellow Breeches Creek is a world-renowned trout fishery, and part of Pennsylvania's Scenic River System. In addition to providing outstanding habitat for fish and many other forms of wildlife, it is a source of drinking water. In this podcast, PennFuture's Jan Jarrett visits the stream at the site of the Hoffman Mill Dam removal in Lisburn (Cumberland County). She talks to Dale Bentz, a contractor hired to oversee the dam removal, and Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission's Dave Christine, a fish biologist working on this and similar projects throughout the state as part of their Migratory Fish Restoration Program. The goal of the project is to return Yellow Breeches to a free-flowing waterway once again, where its habitat can support migratory fish species such as American shad, American eel, and river herring, to name a few. Dam removal will also create physical changes to the stream channel that will improve existing fishing conditions as well as access to the stream for anglers. Funding sources for projects like this one come from a variety of state, federal, and non-profit sources, including Pennsylvania's Growing Greener program. You can learn more about dam removal in the Mid-Atlantic region at American Rivers' web site. To see more picutres of this dam removal project, click here here.