From PennFuture (http://www.pennfuture.org):
Pennsylvania’s General Assembly ended weeks of hard fought debate and negotiations by passing Senate Bill 1195 and Senate Bill 279, two pieces of legislation that give the fossil fuel industry a free pass to pollute in the coming years. The Governor is expected to allow both bills to become law.
Passage of Senate Bill 1195 is regressive, a significant step backward in Pennsylvania’s efforts to combat climate change. The bill uses a 
convoluted process of legislative oversight that gives the General Assembly the ability to disapprove of Pennsylvania’s state carbon reduction plan and delay its implementation. It may also represent an unconstitutional legislative overreach that weakens executive power and short-circuits the commonwealth’s regulatory process. Elected officials, especially those that the fossil fuel industry influences, will have even greater power to delay sound public policy.
Senate Bill 279 is one of the most egregious handouts to the oil and gas industry in years. After nearly 5 years of public engagement and debate, the bill stops new conventional oil and gas regulations from going into effect. While the bill does allow new unconventional gas drilling rules to become law, it fails to modernize standards on conventional drillers who still operate under rules written in the 1980s.
Pennsylvania’s environment and climate shouldn’t be a political football. PennFuture spent months educating lawmakers, mobilizing citizens, working with our colleagues, and communicating with the media to oppose these bad bills. We’re disappointed that many legislators have abandoned future generations in favor of fossil fuel interests.
In recent weeks, many of you reached out to your legislators and took action against these bills. Without your voices, even more legislators would have blindly supported these anti-environmental bills. With you, PennFuture will continue to fight for a safe and healthy environment, challenging those who would jeopardize the health and safety of our children, our families and our neighbors. So we applaud those legislators who stood up for the commonwealth’s environment, putting sound rulemaking, Pennsylvania’s climate, and the next generation above politics.
We thank those legislators who voted NO, in opposition to SB 1195 and SB 279. To see a full list of how legislators voted, please click here. Please thank your legislator if he/she voted NO, and consider voicing your discontent if she/he voted YES. Find your PA legislators contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/index.cfm#address.
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