Cindy Dunn: Election was a referendum on Corbett's handling of gas industry

In the aftermath of Tom Wolf's victory over incumbent Tom Corbett, StateImpact's Susan Phillips interviewed PennFuture's CEO Cindy Dunn to discuss what this means for Pennsylvania and the environment:

On the need for comprehensive methane regulations:

Dunn says in addition to CO2, Wolf needs to tackle greenhouse gas causing methane leaks from... gas infrastructure. “Top of the list is methane leaks,” she said. 

On the need for stronger leadership at DEP and DCNR:

“The perception is that [Corbett] was very lax with the regulations, relied on self-policing, and did not promote renewables. It’s interesting for me because I’ve worked in a number of administrations and it is amazing how important direction from the top is when it comes to choosing agency leaders, and communicating high expectations of serving the public.” 

On the newly reinvigorated Environmental Rights Amendment:

“When Wolf is sworn in as governor, he will swear to uphold the state constitution, which includes the environmental rights amendment,” said Dunn. “And this is something that I think he will pay attention to.”

You can check out the entire article here. 

Andrew Sharp is PennFuture's director of outreach and is based in Philadelphia. He tweets at @RexBainbridge. 

Pennsylvania shines as host of Greenbuild, in spite of Harrisburg obstruction on key green building policy

This week, Pennsylvania is at the center of the green building universe.

Our state's world-class innovation and creativity is on display as over 40,000 green building enthusiasts are in Philly for Greenbuild -- the largest conference dedicated to sustainable building in the world.

One of the key policy drivers of green buildings: Updated building codes. Buildings account for 72 percent of U.S. electricity use and 36 percent of natural gas use. Modern codes arm policy makers and the building industry with new levers to drive greener buildings and healthier communities.

So how does Greenbuild's host state stack up on this key green building policy? [Spoiler: not well.] Is Pennsylvania seizing the opportunity of high-performing, energy efficient, twenty-first century buildings through modern building codes? [Spoiler: no.]

Changes to the building code update process, made by the state legislature and Governor Corbett in 2011 -- at the behest of the home building industry -- are preventing updates to building codes. This means that cost-effective industry best practices are being rejected at the expense of health, safety and energy efficiency.

Hundreds of changes to the building codes recommended in 2012 were all rejected by the board of political appointees charged with updating the state code. These rejected changes include safety improvements in addition to updated energy codes.

Pennsylvania is now building to the 2009, not the 2012, codes. If this process doesn't change, it is unlikely any new code will be adopted in the future.

Even worse, home builders are recommending further changes that would make it even harder to update building codes and could even result in rolling back previous code adoption decisions, enabling codes to revert to much older standards.

With the spotlight of the green building universe on the Keystone state, it's past time for our leaders in Harrisburg to provide the state with the tools to drive innovation and save energy. In Philly parlance: Yo, Harrisburg! Get with the program and fix the building codes mess you created!

Visit BuiltItSafe to tell your legislator to support modern, 21st century building codes.