New PennFuture CEO "an environmental and climate champion for our times"

On Monday, July 6, PennFuture issued a statement announcing Larry Schweiger as its new president and CEO. We couldn't be more excited to have Larry on board and look forward to his leadership and collaborative spirit as we continue to address energy and environmental issues in Pennsylvania. The text of the statement is below.

     PennFuture announced today the appointment of Larry J. Schweiger as president and CEO of the statewide environmental advocacy organization after a four-month national search. He succeeds Cindy Adams Dunn, who left the organization in January to assume the role of Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
     "We're thrilled that Larry is willing and eager to lead PennFuture at this critical juncture for energy and the environment in Pennsylvania," said David Lane, chair of PennFuture's board of directors. "His depth and breadth of experience on these issues is unparalleled and he retains a passion and commitment for the work we do tat is second to none. He is an environmental and climate champion for our times and ready for the challenges, and opportunities, that lie ahead."
     Schweiger comes to PennFuture after ten years at the helm of the National Wildlife Federation, where he led the organization's four million members and supporters and 47 state and territorial affiliates. He is a past president and CEO of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, held a key leadership role at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and served as Executive Secretary of a bipartisan environmental committee of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Pittsburgh-area native is an author, national speaker and highly-regarded nature photographer, creating resonant images of, among other things, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, tar sands mining, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He is an avid fresh and saltwater angler, boater and canoeist.
     "America works best when we work together," said Schweiger. "Clean energy, natural resource protection and a safe environment are not partisan issues, rather, they touch us all. I am committed to helping give these issues the priority they deserve here in Pennsylvania. PennFuture has long been mindful of the impact of its efforts on this and future generations and it's the lens through which we will continue to view all our efforts."


Elaine Labalme is Strategic Campaigns Director for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh.

Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate engenders a guilty conscience

Even if you aren’t a Roman Catholic, you have to give Pope Francis credit. He has been making strides in Catholicism since the beginning of his papal duties, making the news quite often with his progressive actions. Typically, the Pope reaches a wide audience of Catholics and Christians around the world, totaling roughly one billion people.

However, in Pope Francis’ encyclical on the

environment (released June 18), he addressed an even wider audience: everyone on this planet, not simply those aligned with his religious beliefs.

Using his broad platform, the Pope called on everyone to care more for the environment, referring to it as the common good. In his message, he focused on the moral concerns we should have for the environment. We have seen the effectiveness of policies and scientific knowledge on helping the environment but can the moral aspect be effective as well? Can it be more effective?

“Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it.”

The Pope’s approach on the environment is intriguing. He acknowledges the reality of climate change and pins its cause on humans. He acknowledges how humanity has impacted our environment, affecting our common home. He is prompting us to think and question and, perhaps, instilling a guilty conscience in us all.

Feeling guilty may well make us want to change our behavior. To be sure, guilt is a tricky motivator at best—too much of it causes us to give up or shut down. However, a measure of awareness in the form of guilt paired with real alternatives can lead us to take action.

We understand this motivator in our day-to-day interactions with others. For example, when we wrong another person, we tend to feel guilty and want to make it right. Surely, the earth is a living organism, and an enormous one at that. However, we tend to feel less connected to it in comparison to people. We interact with it every day yet we place more concern on human relationships than environmental ones. Now, however, this guilty conscience is being applied to the environment. We are being asked to think of the environment in a moral way, in the same way we think about each other.

“This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature.”

In his encyclical, he is applying a concept of eco-guilt, or guilt from not meeting standards for behavior that aids the environment. In turn, this instilled guilty conscience calls us to act.

According to research, by framing environmental deterioration as human-caused, it makes us want to act in more environmentally friendly ways. These issues become more tangible for us. It puts these problems into perspective. The Pope has placed humans at the center of this issue: Our behavior has harmed our Earth; we are the problem and, yet, we are the solution.

Pope Francis’ morally framed message is one from which we can learn. Religious opinions aside, his encyclical has spoken on a global issue to his global audience. He has brought attention to this vital issue. This attention can only help progress our environment. Now it’s up to us, the common person, to protect our common home.

Nikole Baker is a PennFuture intern based in Pittsburgh.

A new day in PA: 5 Things Governor-Elect Wolf Can Do In 100 Days

November 4 saw the election of York County businessman Tom Wolf as Pennsylvania's next governor. Voters spoke loud and clear -- they want a governor who will hold industry accountable -- and that means making drillers pay their fair share, and also enacting tough, new regulations on industry. 

During his campaign, Wolf said he would fight for a cleaner energy future -- and promised new air and water regulations on the gas industry. 

A powerful coalition of some of Pennsylvania's most prominent environmental organizations came together last week to congratulate Governor-elect Wolf and to spell out five things the governor should do in his first 100 days in office. The groups involved: Clean Water Action, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, PennEnvironment, PennFuture, and the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter

The organizations urged Governor-elect Wolf to prioritize the following during his first 100 days in office. 

• Save Pennsylvania's State Parks and Forests
• Regulate Methane and Clean Up Pennsylvania's Air
• Plan for the Future on Climate and Energy
• Let the Department of Environmental Protection Protect the Environment
• Keep Our Water Safe

Save State Parks and Forests
In 2014, Corbett overturned a 2010 executive order that created a moratorium on gas leasing in public lands managed by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Wolf should reinstate that order and make it clear that the order applies to both state parks and state forests, and to both surface and subsurface leases. Wolf should do everything in his power to prevent natural gas development in the Clarence Moore lands of the Loyalsock State Forest.

Regulate methane and Clean Up Pennsylvania's Air
Pennsylvania ranks among the worst states in the nation for air pollution and illnesses like asthma. Currently, Pennsylvania does not directly regulate methane pollution from natural gas operations and lags behind other states in controlling air emissions. Governor-Elect Wolf should work with DEP to directly regulate methane emissions from natural gas operations. Additionally, Pennsylvania should enact a strong "Smog Rule," to limit pollutants like nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds.  

Plan for the Future
Both state and federal laws will require Pennsylvania to adopt new plans to reduce global warming pollution in the coming years. Wolf should produce climate and energy plans based on sound science and focused on rebuilding the wind and solar industries in the state.

Let the Department of Environmental Protection Protect the Environment
Wolf can reverse Corbett's damage to the DEP's commitment and ability to enforce environmental regulations. He can start by implementing the recommendations of the state Auditor General to ensure both full transparency and strong enforcement of gas drilling rules. Wolf should overhaul the DEP's permitting process for gas drilling and create mandatory enforcement penalties to ensure that public health trumps politics and profits in gas operations. Finally, he should instruct the DEP to ban fracking waste pits, a simple way to significantly reduce the health risks of toxic fracking chemicals.

Keep Our Water Safe
The Delaware River Basin Commission currently prohibits fracking in the Delaware River Watershed, from which 15 million Americans get their drinking water. Wolf should publicly restate his support for the moratorium, seek to restore the Commission's budget, and ensure that the DRBC Commissioner from Pennsylvania works to keep our water clean. Additionally, he should push the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to launch a cumulative impact assessment of fracking on the Susquehanna watershed.

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

Hell with the lid off? Maybe not, but work to be done.

Pittsburgh used to be so polluted that it was referred to as “hell with the lid off.” The pollution is mostly invisible these days, however, “out of sight” usually means “out of mind.”

A recent survey by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette showed that Pittsburghers care about the environment more than ever. Sixty four percent of responders believe that climate change is a problem and a whopping 96 percent believe that the environment is important to Pittsburgh’s economic outlook, but the majority still doesn’t believe that the region’s air quality is a problem because they can’t see it. Unfortunately, it's the pollution that can’t be seen by the naked eye that can do the most damage. Fine soot particles can wreak havoc on the body, and contribute to lung cancer, lung disease, and heart disease.

Still, it's great to see that area residents feel strongly about the environment. There are many great organizations in the region, and campaigns including the Breathe Project, that are educating citizens about the state of our air and how we can improve it.

Corbett Is missing the boat, and we'll pay the price

Four former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrators recently wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times. If Governor Tom Corbett missed it, he needs to read it.

The subject was climate change. The four writers, William Ruckelshaus, Lee Thomas, William Reilly and Christine Todd Whitman, all headed the EPA under Republican presidents - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush, none of whom are light weights when it comes to conservative credentials. The Op-Ed makes several important points.

First, science does not support the claims of climate change deniers.

"There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: Our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean is warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. Sea levels are rising. Arctic Sea ice is melting years faster than projected."

Second, inaction on climate change has real costs, and we do not have time to wait.

"The costs of inaction are undeniable. The lines of scientific evidence grow only stronger and more numerous. And the window of time remaining to act is growing smaller: Delay could mean that warming becomes 'locked in.'"

Third, protection of the environment and public health has always been a conservative value.

"As administrators of the E.P.A ... we held fast to common-sense conservative principles — protecting the health of the American people, working with the best technology available and trusting in the innovation of American business and in the market to find the best solutions for the least cost.

That approach helped us tackle major environmental challenges to our nation and the world: The pollution of our rivers, dramatized when the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire in 1969; the hole in the ozone layer; and the devastation wrought by acid rain."

Fourth, conservatives should support President Obama's climate action plan to cut carbon emissions and invest in renewable resources.

"[P]resident Obama’s June climate action plan lays out achievable actions that would deliver real progress. He will use his executive powers to require reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the nation’s power plants and spur increased investment in clean energy technology, which is inarguably the path we must follow to ensure a strong economy along with a livable climate."

Finally, action on climate change will promote and not harm the economy.

"We can have both a strong economy and a livable climate. All parties know that we need both. The rest of the discussion is either detail, which we can resolve, or purposeful delay, which we should not tolerate.       

[W]e must continue efforts to reduce the climate-altering pollutants that threaten our planet. The only uncertainty about our warming world is how bad the changes will get, and how soon. What is most clear is that there is no time to waste."

Regrettably, the administration in Harrisburg doesn't get it when it comes to climate change. Governor Corbett dodges questions about whether he believes in global warming, and seemingly lacks serious concern about the consequences of not taking action on climate change. Instead of working to cut carbon emissions and invest in clean energy technology, the Governor rejects any new investments in renewable power, all the while offering billions of dollars in subsidies to coal and gas interests.

In the words of four Republican EPA Administrators:

"[W]e must continue efforts to reduce the climate-altering pollutants that threaten our planet. The only uncertainty about our warming world is how bad the changes will get, and how soon. What is most clear is that there is no time to waste."

Should Governor Corbett continue to hide his head in the sand on climate change, Pennsylvanians will undoubtedly pay the price.

Natural Gas Poised to Push King Coal Off the Throne

As blogged by Brad Plumer at the Washington Post, a peer reviewed study by Duke indicates that natural gas will continue to push out dirty coal as the least cost power generation option so long as average natural gas to coal price remains below 1.8 (it was 1.42 in February 2012). The study indicates that if new air emission limitations are enforced against coal power plants, natural gas plants will remain competitive with coal plants up to a ratio of 4.3. In other words, as coal plants are required to absorb the real cost of harm that they impose on the public and environment, cleaner burning natural gas will be competitive even when the average cost of gas is four times that of dirty coal.