The major environmental and energy bills becoming law in the 2017-18 legislative session include--

2018 -----------

-- Steel Slag Waste Exemption: Senate Bill 497 (Vogel-R-Beaver) exempting steel slag from the definition of waste under certain circumstances.  A House Fiscal Note and summary is available. Signed into law as Act 7.

-- Farm High Tunnels: House Bill 1486 (Zimmerman-R-Lancaster) exempting agricultural high-tunnel structures from the Stormwater Management Act (House Fiscal Note and summary). Signed into law as Act 15.

-- Mine Medical Personnel: House Bill 1341 (Pyle-R-Armstrong) further providing for training and certification of emergency medical personnel responding to bituminous deep mine accidents..  A House Fiscal Note and summary is available. Signed into law as Act 16.

-- Local Clean Energy Funding: Senate Bill 234 (Blake-D-Lackawanna), Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing Program, that authorizes local governments to create energy improvement districts to help fund energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation projects for commercial, agricultural and industrial buildings to reduce their operating costs (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 30.

-- Fiscal Code-Multiple Provisions: House Bill 1929 (Marsico-R- Dauphin) amending the Fiscal Code includes a new Private Dam Financial Assurance and Loan Program, direction to DCNR on developing ATV trails and more funding for small water and sewer projects (Senate Fiscal Note and summary, House Fiscal Note and summary).  Click Here for a summary by House Democrats.   Click Here for more.  Signed into law as Act 42.

-- Limiting Eminent Domain: House Bill 2468 limiting the use of eminent domain by government agencies on land with conservation easements for parks and open space purposes except for emergency condemnation and condemnation by public utilities (House Fiscal Note).  Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 45.

-- Alternative Ratemaking: House Bill 1782 (Delozier-R-Cumberland) authorizing alternative ratemaking such as decoupling, performance-based, multiyear and other mechanisms for utilities regulated by the PUC, including electric, natural gas, water and wastewater services (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 58.

-- Littering/Dumping: Senate Bill 431 (Scavello-R-Monroe) authorizes the designation of local litter enforcement corridors where fines are doubled for certain offences or even tripled for commercial littering or illegal dumping and designates all scenic highways as litter enforcement corridors (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Click Here for more.  Signed into law as Act 61.

-- Disposal Of Hospice Medication: Senate Bill 978 (Baker-R-Luzerne) disposal of unused medicines in hospice or for home health care patients (House Fiscal Note and summary). Signed into law as Act 69.

-- Recreation Liability: House Bill 544 (Moul-R-Adams) further providing for liability protection for landowners opening their land for public recreation (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 98.

-- Leaf Waste Recycling: House Bill 927 (Rader-R-Monroe) amends Act 101 Municipal Waste Planning and Recycling Act to eliminate the mandate on smaller municipalities to have a leaf waste collection program (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 101.

-- One-Stop-Business Center: House Bill 1284 (Peifer-R-Pike) directs DCED to develop a one-stop-shop online business formation and permitting portal for business (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 107.

-- Lead Service Lines: House Bill 2075 (Charlton-R-Delaware) authorizing rate recovery for customer-owned lead water service lines (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 120.

-- DEP Agricultural Advisory Board: Senate Bill 1171 (Brooks-R-Crawford) provides detailed procedures for DEP to consult with the existing Agricultural Advisory Board on the adoption of technical guidance, changes to permits affecting agriculture and regulations (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 162.

2017 ----------

-- Timber On Federal Land: House Bill 1494 (Rapp-R-Forest) authorizing the state to enter into a cooperative agreement with federal agencies for the purpose of selling timber on federal land (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 25.

-- Alternative Septic Systems: Senate Bill 144 (Yaw-R-Lycoming) amending Act 537 on include alternative on-lot sewage systems in sewage plans (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 26.

-- Natural Gas Vehicles: Senate Bill 589 (Langerholc-R-Bedford) increasing maximum allowable weight for natural gas vehicles (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 31.

-- Roll Back Stream Protections From Mining: Senate Bill 624 (Scarnati-R-Jefferson) retroactively rolling back protections for streams from deep coal mining (House Fiscal Note and summary).  (Click Here for more.)  Gov. Wolf allowed this bill to become law without his signature as Act 32.

-- Uniform Construction Code: House Bill 409 (Evankovich-R- Allegheny) making changes to the process for adopting amendments to the Uniform Construction Code, including energy efficiency standards (Senate Fiscal Note and summary). Click Here for more.  Signed into law as Act 36. 

-- Sunset For $2/ton Recycling Fee Eliminated: Part of the Administrative Code bill-- House Bill 118-- that became law included a provision eliminating the sunset date on the $2/ton Recycling Fee ensuring financial stability for the state’s local Recycling Program into the future (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 40.

-- Closing Solar Borders: A provision requiring solar energy credits under the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards to be purchased within Pennsylvania also became law as part of House Bill 118 (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 40.

-- Manganese Standard: Included in the Administrative Code bill-- House Bill 118 (Kaufer-R- Luzerne)-- is a provision which directs the Environmental Quality Board to adopt a proposed manganese standard within 90 days that includes the 1 milligram/liter manganese standard established under 25 Pa Code Chapter 93.7 and insure the standard is met at the point of intake for water suppliers (25 Pa Code Chapter 96.3). The 1 milligram/liter standard is 20 times the level of manganese that water suppliers are allowed to have in their water supplies, according to EPA’s secondary maximum contaminant level (Senate Fiscal Note and summary). Click Here for more.  Signed into law as Act 40. 

-- Wild Resource Conservation Tax Checkoff: This checkoff was permanently reauthorized as part of the Tax Code bill-- House Bill 542-- that became law.  It helps assure funding for DCNR’s Wild Resource Conservation Program (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 43.

-- Funding Sewer/Water Laterals: A section of the Fiscal Code bill-- House Bill 674-- that became law allows public municipal authorities to use funds to replace private water and sewer laterals (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  This was proposed originally to help the Pittsburgh Water Authority deal with lead service lines.  Signed into law as Act 44.

-- Noxious Weeds: House Bill 790 (Pashinski-D-Luzerne) repeal the Noxious Weed Control Law and replace with the Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Act (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 46.

-- Performance-Based Budgeting: Senate Bill 181 (Mensch-R-Montgomery) providing for a performance-based budgeting (exempting appropriations to the General Assembly and the Judiciary) and creating a Performance-Based Budget Board (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 48. 

-- Natural Gas Gathering Pipelines: Senate Bill 242 (Baker-R-Luzerne) adding unconventional and larger conventional natural gas gathering pipelines to the PA One Call utility safety program is a major win (House Fiscal Note and summary). Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 50. 

-- Storage Tanks: House Bill 290 (Metzgar-R-Bedford) providing for legislative appointments to the Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Board, fills a gap in funding for DEP’s Storage Tank Program and extends the sunset date for the environmental cleanup programs for storage tanks (House Fiscal Note and summary).  Signed into law as Act 61.

-- Water Authorities Under PUC: House Bill 1490 (Turzai-R-Allegheny) placing the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority under the regulation of the Public Utility Commission (House Fiscal Note and summary) .Click Here for more. Signed into law as Act 65. 

-- Banning Plastic Bag Bans: House Bill 1071 (Farry-R-Bucks) to prevent the imposition of a ban, fee or surcharge on recyclable plastic bags (House Fiscal Note and summary).  This bill was vetoed by Gov. Wolf as Veto No. 1.

-- Lead Exposure Task Force: Senate Resolution 33 (Yudichak-D-Luzerne) was passed by the Senate creating a bipartisan task force to investigate the scope of Pennsylvania’s lead exposure problem, including in drinking water (sponsor summary). Click Here for more. Adopted June 6, 2017.

(Photo: 2014 Pittsburgh Solar Tour Guidebook, 7211 Thomas Blvd, Pittsburgh.)

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12/31/2018