Tuesday, May 20 is Primary Election Day in Pennsylvania!  To help inform this important election, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council invited all Republican and Democratic candidates on the ballot to share their views on the most challenging environmental issues facing the Commonwealth today.

In a special issue of PEC’s Forum newsletter, Governor Tom Corbett, Rob McCord, Katie McGinty, Allyson Schwartz and Tom Wolf offered their views, ideas and proposals on a wide spectrum of environmental topics. 

PEC thanks the candidates for governor for their participation in this project and hope their contributions will be helpful to the voters heading to the polls on May 20th.

The six questions asked of each candidate were:

1. The recent Supreme Court decision on Act 13 has tremendous implications for the way Pennsylvania regulates natural gas activity. But this ruling also extends to all environmental protection laws. What do you think this means for state and local policy makers moving forward? Do you support enhanced local control of environmental protection measures, even if they might be in conflict with state controls?

2. Pennsylvania still faces significant pollution legacy issues like abandoned mine drainage (AMD), with cost estimates exceeding $1 billion needed for restoration of AMD alone. With the continual reduction in federal and state funding for this work, what novel approaches would you support to address this need? Would you also promote a severance tax on coal or other fossil fuels?

3. Gamesa has announced that it will be closing its Ebensburg wind turbine assembly facility at the end of March 2014. What do you think the ramifications of this decision are for Pennsylvania?

4. Using the potential Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County as an example, how would you, as governor, balance environmental and human health protection with key economic development opportunities?

5. Do you think federal regulation of natural gas operations is appropriate?  If so, why?

6. What specific actions would you take in your first 100 days as governor to address the most significant environmental issues you believe are facing Pennsylvania?

A copy of PEC’s special edition of their Forum newsletter is available online.  Click Here to go to the text of the Q/A.

NewsClips:

StateImpact: Meet The Candidates: Gov. Tom Corbett

StateImpact: Meet The Candidates: Rob McCord

StateImpact: Meet The Candidates: Katie McGinty

StateImpact: Meet The Candidates: Allyson Schwartz

StateImpact: Meet The Candidates: Tom Wolf

5/12/2014