Series Entry: The politics of environmental policy

Why do new environmental rules often seem to get framed as either live-saving, or job-killing? In this series, we delve into the politics behind Pennsylvania’s environmental policies. We look at the personalities, technologies, and laws that have gotten us where we are today–deeply divided about what’s best for the people and the world around us.

Trying to modernize

Throughout Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom, state environmental regulators have been behind-the-times when it comes to technology. We look at an effort to bring the DEP into the 21st century.

This story aired on February 30, 2016

 

The rift

As Pennsylvania’s July 1 budget deadline loomed, Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, is found common ground with the Republican-led legislature on bills affecting climate change policy and regulations for the oil and gas industry. But it led to a growing rift between his administration and environmentalists.

This story aired on June 16, 2016

Meaningful public outreach?

In a bizarre episode at a public meeting in Harrisburg,  two Pa. Department of Environmental Protection advisory panels, including one specifically tasked with environmental justice, ignored a concerned citizen from a low-income area who had driven hundreds of miles to attend the meeting, and instead engaged in a lengthy discussion about improving public outreach.

This story aired on December 15, 2016

Cleaner Power

President Obama’s major climate change initiative, the Clean Power Plan, is currently in legal limbo as federal courts decide its fate.  But Governor Tom Wolf’s administration has decided to keep working on it anyway. The goal of the Clean Power Plan is to cut emissions from existing power plants by about a third over the next 15 years. It would mean closing hundreds of coal-fired plants and shifting the grid to more renewable forms of energy. Each state is supposed to come up with its own path to accomplish this.

This story aired on April 6, 2016