PEC submitted the following letter to members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly on November 16, 2020. Dear Members of the General Assembly: This week the legislature is tasked with the difficult job of finishing the state budget through the remainder...
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...
PEC submitted the following letter to the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, which will be considering HB2004 on May 5, 2020.
Congress has missed its last opportunity in 2018 to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a landmark conservation and recreation program that has funded projects throughout Pennsylvania and across the nation since it began in 1965. Despite strong bipartisan...
PEC submitted the following comments to the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, which will have a voting meeting tomorrow (January 30, 2018) for several bills. January 29, 2018 To: Members of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Re: Senate...
Late Wednesday the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed legislation (House Bill 453) that, if enacted as part of the state budget, would constitute the largest cut to environmental and energy program funds in the state’s history. What does this legislation...
PEC has sent the following communication to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives strongly opposing tax code and administrative code bills that would have devastating impact on state-funded environmental, conservation, agriculture, outdoor recreation, and community-based programs. Click here to identify your legislator...
Today PEC sent the following communication to members of the General Assembly: July 21, 2017 To: Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly Re: Proposed Diversion of Monies from Local Environmental Project Funds Dear Senators and Representatives: The Pennsylvania Environmental Council...
As the Pennsylvania General Assembly rushes to complete a state budget for the remainder of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, lawmakers are once again considering ideas that are fundamentally counterproductive — like diverting revenues from special funds like the Keystone Fund...
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...
“Every day is like a weekend day now,” read one response to PEC’s recent survey of Pennsylvania trail managers about outdoor recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dozens of respondents reported — and counter data confirmed — that statewide trail use...
These days, environmental issues are politically charged in a way that can make sound, commonsense policy seem unattainable. But it wasn’t always like that — and it doesn’t have to be. Tom Ridge, the Republican former governor of Pennsylvania, says...
Pennsylvania has one of the nation’s most extensive state park-and-forest systems, and for decades it’s been growing in size as well as popularity. But funding for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) hasn’t kept pace with that growth....