Philly, Pittsburgh compete for Amazon; Gov’s in the middle

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the two great metros of the commonwealth, are destined to tangle over landing Amazon’s new headquarters. (Alejandro Alvarez photo)                 

Angela Couloumbis & Liz Navratil report for Philly.com:

“Western Pennsylvania offers many `quality-of-life’ enticements that would be attractive to corporate leaders and staff, a fact that regularly places the region on the top of `best places to live’ lists,” one letter to Wolf declared, signed by 12 senators including Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson).

Scarnati, whose hometown is not terribly close to Pittsburgh, only happens to be the third ranking state official in Pennsylvania.

Politics will not technically be a factor in the two cities’ expected bids for Amazon’s second headquarters, which dangles the promise of 50,000 high-paying jobs and billions in investments. But it is part of the equation in Harrisburg, as both cities — and possibly other areas in the state — vie for Wolf’s blessing as they attempt to land the coveted prize.

For his part, Wolf, a Democrat, is trying to be Switzerland.

“I’m the governor of Pennsylvania,” Wolf said in an interview Wednesday with the Inquirer and Post-Gazette. “We certainly don’t want to get into trying to play favorites within the Pennsylvania family.”

Wolf said his priority is to lure the corporate giant to the state, which he said is home to “two world-class cities.” He said he read about Amazon’s search for a new city late last week, and by Saturday was already schmoozing a top Amazon executive at the Pitt-Penn State football game in State College.

He also sent a handwritten note to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.



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Pa. senators propose health screenings near military bases

Willow Grove hangar
Marty Schy, a veteran Navy pilot who works as a caretaker at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station, looks up at the ceiling of Hangar 175, through which chemical firefighting foam once was piped. Michael Bryant photo


Justine McDaniel reports for Philly.com:

In an effort to determine how tens of thousands of people nationwide have been affected by tainted water near military bases, residents in some of those areas would receive health screenings under an amendment proposed by Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators.

Contamination from military use of firefighting foam, which contains chemicals known as PFOS and PFOA, has sparked fear and frustration among communities near bases from Pennsylvania to Washington state, along with a flurry of attempts from state and federal lawmakers to compel the Pentagon to step up its response.

Residents near the Willow Grove and Warminster bases in Bucks and Montgomery Counties found out in 2014 that their tap or well waters were contaminated. The military is now testing nearly 400 bases for the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, and as of April had confirmed water contamination at or near more than 35 of them. Contamination from industrial sites has also cropped up in sampling.

The amendment, proposed by Sens. Pat Toomey (R, Pa.) and Bob Casey (D., Pa.) would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to choose eight areas affected by the contamination for “biomonitoring,” which looks at the chemicals to which people have been exposed and what remains in their bodies. Testing would begin within six months and be done within two years.

Casey said on a conference call Wednesday that he and Toomey would urge the CDC to include the vicinity of Warrington, Warminster, and Horsham, near the suburban Pennsylvania former air bases, in the set of communities to be monitored.

It would provide some more immediate data as the CDC also embarks on a five-year health analysis, for which Congress has already authorized $7 million.


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Using budget bill, House votes to block climate rules


Georgina Gustin reports for Inside Climate News: The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to cut funding from key climate protection rules and rejected an attempt to save regional offices of the Environmental Protection Agency from being closed. But lawmakers voted against an amendment to cut $1.9 billion from the EPA’s budget, which would have dealt a devastating blow to the beleaguered agency. Offered by Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, the amendment’s cuts would have come close to the 31 percent reductions sought by President Donald Trump. The House bill does cut more than $530 million from the agency’s $8 billion budget, slashing it to less than the agency was spending in 2006.  The votes came as lawmakers worked their way through a broad spending package for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins in October. Final passage by the House will likely come Thursday, but any differences with a Senate version will need to be reconciled. The bill contained hundreds of amendments, many of them “riders” of the kind attached to appropriations bills to score policy points. Dozens of these proposals have drawn criticism from environmental groups. Hewing closely to party lines, Republicans backed two amendments sponsored by Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). One would prevent funds from being used to enforce an Obama-era rule that limits methane pollution from new oil and gas facilities. The other effectively prohibits the EPA from factoring in future damages from climate change—a calculation known as the social cost of carbon—in weighing the costs and benefits of its rules. Read the full story Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
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Enviros do one-hand clapping for proposed fracking ban


Environmentalist greet ban with approval, but are less pleased with regulations that will address how fracking wastewater will be disposed of in the Delaware River basin

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

Delaware River

Delaware River
The Delaware River Basin Commission yesterday formally began the process of drafting new rules to ban natural gas drilling in the basin, as well as other regulations that could benefit the industry in areas not covered by the prohibition.
By a narrow margin, the commission approved a resolution directing its staff to draw up the new regulations on an issue that has caused huge controversy, including at the interstate agency.
The action, if adopted sometime next year, would ban hydraulic fracturing, the technology used to extract gas from shale formations, within the basin. At the same time, it would propose new rules governing the transfer of water for drilling outside the basin and the storage, treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater in the basin.
NJ Spotlight will explore issues affecting the Delaware River watershed and steps to protect its resources at an event at Camden County Community College tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Follow this link to register.
In effect, the proposals would protect the resources of the Delaware River, which provides drinking water for 15 million people in four states, while at the same time regulating drilling operations in areas where they are now permitted.
The latter concerns environmentalists, who welcome the ban, but oppose water transfers out of the basin for fracking, which requires enormous amounts of water for the drilling process. They also are against disposing fracking wastewater within the basin.


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Hitting the ‘gas’ pedal for electric vehicles in New Jersey

Ambitious ‘roadmap’ wants to see 300,000 plug-in vehicles on the road by 2025; 2 million by 2035

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

electric car

The state needs to broaden its efforts to create a top market for electric vehicles by accelerating building the charging infrastructure for the cars and by providing lucrative incentives to spur motorists to buy them.
In an ambitious ‘’roadmap’’ to helping the state comply with mandates to clean up its transportation fleet, a new coalition urged policymakers to establish aggressive targets for ushering in an era of zero-emission vehicles.
With only 10,000 zero-emission cars on the road in the state, a new coalition says it wants to have a total of 300,000 plug-in vehicles motoring about New Jersey by 2025 and 2 million by 2035.
It called for the state to come up with $300 million to finance rebates for drivers to buy plug-in cars, a strategy successfully employed by other states, according to ChargEVC, a coalition promoting electric vehicles.
Sound fanciful? Not to Sen. Bob Smith, a Democrat from Middlesex County and the chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee. He has the committee staff already drafting a bill that would allocate $150 million a year from the state’s clean-energy fund to foot the bill.
In three years, Smith said the bill would provide enough money to provide the rebates to buy plug-in vehicles and still leave $150 million to finance building the infrastructure for electric cars.
Smith said the Transportation Trust Fund and the highway authorities are other options for helping to build the infrastructure needed to ease the range anxiety — the fear car batteries will run out of juice without a charging station in sight.
“This single initiative — getting more EVs on our roads — can deliver massive benefits for all,’’ said Pamela Frank, CEO of ChargEVC. “All electric customers save money with more electricity on our grid. Total net savings could be in the billions depending on how aggressive we choose to be.’’

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Ferry service is the subject of NJ Assembly meeting

The New Jersey Assembly’s Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee will meet at 10 a.m. on Monday, September 18, 2017 in the Stevens Institute of Technology, Howe Center, 1 Castle Point Terrace, Bissinger Room, 4th Floor, Hoboken, N.J. 

The committee will take testimony from invited guests concerning the operation of ferry services and subsidization of those services, including the subsidy provided for ferry service connecting the Atlantic Highlands with Jersey City and Hoboken.

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