The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee this week reported out five bills—

· House Bill 1902 (Rubley-R-Chester) extending the $2 per ton recycling fee and requiring that Section 904 Recycling Performance Grants be spent on efforts to promote recycling and waste reduction. The Committee amended the bill to remove the sunset date on the recycling fee entirely and require municipalities receiving Recycling Performance Grants of more than $10,000 to have waste and recycling services created by ordinance and meet more specific rules to spend the funds to promote waste reduction and recycling.

· Senate Bill 410 (M.White-R-Venango) establishing the Pennsylvania Center for Environmental Education in law;

· House Resolution 382 (Frankel-D-Allegheny) a concurrent resolution urging Congress to reauthorize the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund;

· House Bill 1051 (Sturla-D-Lancaster) establishing the Adopt-a-River Program in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and

· House Resolution 368 (Reichley-R-Berks) urging the Corps of Engineers to look into wet weather problems in the Little Lehigh Creek Watershed in Berks and Lehigh Counties.

10/28/2005