Environment

Growing Greener II
On July 13, 2005, Governor Rendell signed into law Growing Greener II, fulfilling his pledge to improve the economic and environmental health of Pennsylvania and bringing to fruition more than a year of aggressive efforts to address some of the state's most pressing environmental problems.
 
Not only will this investment keep Pennsylvania 'growing greener' well into the future, but it also will help our Commonwealth win the race for new development and job creation. The $625 million voter-approved plan --- the single largest environmental investment in state history --- will clean up rivers and streams; protect natural areas, open spaces and working farms; and shore up key programs to improve quality of life and revitalize communities across the Commonwealth.
 
Growing Greener II embraces priorities that Pennsylvanians share. The initiative protects working farms; preserves natural areas and open spaces; cleans up rivers and streams; takes on serious environmental problems at abandoned mines and contaminated industrial sites, shore up key programs that are dangerously short of funds, improve our state parks; enhance local recreational needs; repair fish hatcheries and other habitat-related facilities; and revitalize communities across the Commonwealth.
 
The $625 million will be spread out over six years in the following manner:

• $230 million to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to clean up rivers and streams; take on serious environmental problems at abandoned mines and contaminated industrial sites; and finance the development and deployment of advanced energy projects.
• $217.5 million to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to preserve natural areas and open spaces; improve state parks; and enhance local recreational needs.
• $80 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) to protect working farms.
• $50 million to the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) to revitalize communities through investments in housing and mixed-use redevelopment projects.
• $27.5 million to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) to repair fish hatcheries and aging dams.
• $20 million to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) for habitat-related facility upgrades and repairs.

A provision in the new law sets up an Environmental Block Grant Program that allows counties to address local priorities. Counties can designate up to $90 million over the life of the bond program by picking from approved projects within the DEP, DCNR, PDA and DCED appropriations to target specific needs. Each county will be guaranteed a minimum level of funding. Funding will be distributed among the state's 67 counties according to their class.
 
Growing Greener II also restores funding in the short term for the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA) Fund, providing $50 million over the next two fiscal years to shore up the program. The new law also provides $10 million for a Historic Preservation Tax Credit program and $2.5 million for a Green Sales Tax Holiday.

Gamesa
When the Spanish wind-energy company Gamesa Corp. announced that it us basing its manufacturing facility for wind turbine generator blades at the South Park Industrial Complex in Ebensburg, Cambria County, it represented a turning point in economic fortunes with Pennsylvania luring high-paying manufacturing jobs from overseas. The opening of the plant will create as many as 500 construction and operations jobs, including 236 permanent high-paying manufacturing positions.
 
In September, Gamesa announced its U.S. headquarters and East Coast development offices will be located in Philadelphia. The manufacturing plant represents the latest piece of the company's Pennsylvania development plans --- totaling $40 million in investments in the state. Together with the construction, operation and maintenance of its wind farms, Gamesa's manufacturing facility and two Philadelphia offices are expected to create as many as 1,000 jobs in the Commonwealth over the next five years.
 
The company has worked out 600 megawatts' worth of agreements to sell wind-generated power to Pennsylvania utilities, with a goal of reaching 1,000 megawatts, enough to power more than 300,000 homes. Pennsylvania already is a leader on the East Coast with wind-farm production capacity at 129 megawatts, with at least another 84 megawatts scheduled to come on line within the next year.

Energy Issues
Just as America's energy past is grounded right here in Pennsylvania, where our work forces and natural resources fueled an industrial revolution and powered this country through two world wars, so is the nation's energy future. Our Commonwealth is establishing itself as a leader in building and deploying a robust diversity of clean and renewable energy technologies with measurable impacts on pollution reduction, environmental protection, economic growth and enhanced homeland security.

• Pennsylvania is home to one of the nation's most progressive alternative energy portfolio standards, ensuring that 18 percent of all energy generated by 2020 comes from clean, efficient and advanced resources.
• Over the next decade, Pennsylvania will replace 900 million gallons of transportation fuel with locally produced alternative resources such as ethanol and biodiesel, or with fuels derived from coal liquefaction.
• The state is home to the East Coast's first state-of-the-art biofuels injection facility, which opened last fall with $219,908 in state aid. The plant will replace 3.2 million gallons of foreign oil with domestically produced biodiesel and keep at home $6 million worth of energy dollars by reducing the state's need to purchase imported fuels.
• The nation's first coal gasification-liquefaction plant is being built in northeastern Pennsylvania. The facility will use waste coal to produce 40 millions of clean-burning diesel fuel each year.
• Brought back to life after years of inactivity, the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority has awarded $15 million in grants and loans for 41 clean energy projects that will leverage $200 million in private investment. The projects will create 1,558 permanent and construction jobs.
• The Pennsylvania Energy Harvest Grant Program has awarded $15.9 million and leveraged another $43.7 million in private funds since its inception in May 2003 for projects using sources such as wind, solar, biomass, waste coal and recycled energy.

Mercury
The Rendell administration has put our Commonwealth in a leadership position by calling for tougher national mercury reduction rules. Pennsylvania filed suit against the U.S. EPA's mercury emissions reduction rule for backing away from minimum requirements in the federal Clean Air Act and slowing the timetable to achieve significant reductions of the highly toxic pollutant. The federal administration's mercury proposal is insufficiently protective of public health and disproportionately affects Pennsylvania's economy by allowing upwind states to continue to pollute our Commonwealth.