From the Clean Air Council (http://www.cleanair.org/):
Pennsylvania’s air quality needs your help. The Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) is currently receiving comment on a direly needed increase in air quality permit fees. Please support this fee increase at http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51176/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=26357 to fully fund the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Air Quality Program.
Historically, DEP has seen draconian cuts worse than the average state agency. According to analysis from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, “General Fund support for DEP has decreased 39% since 2007-08; adjusted for inflation the cut is about 50%. This year, the Department of Environmental Protection would see a further 13% decrease in funding under Governor Wolf’s proposal, from $158.5 million to $137.8 million.”
Clean Air Council strongly supports the proposal to increase fees to cover costs, but believes that the amount of the increase is not enough. According to DEP’s projections, under these new rates, DEP would barely have enough money to manage its current skeletal workload, let alone have adequate funding to comply with its obligations.
Please urge the EQB to adopt the Air Quality Fee Schedule Amendments after increasing the rates to compensate for (1) the expected drop in General Funding for DEP and (2) the need to restore the Air Quality Program and bring it back into legal compliance.
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