The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee met this week to hear a presentation by DCNR Secretary Michael DiBerardinis on the agency’s Carbon Management Plan and approved legislation that would ban the sale of new thermostats containing mercury and to urge Congress to investigate the role of speculators in the rising cost of oil.

Testimony provided by DCNR Secretary Michael DiBerardinis provided an overview of the goals and objectives of the Carbon Management Plan that was developed with the help of a stakeholder group facilitated by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

A presentation provided by John Quigley, DCNR’s manager for the project, outlined the recommendations in the plan and the next steps to finalize the strategies.

Link: DCNR Carbon Management Plan Available for Public Comment

The bills considered by the Committee included:

· House Bill 44 (Rubley-R-Chester) prohibiting the sale of mercury thermostats; and

· House Resolution 788 (Longietti-D-Mercer) urging Congress to investigate the role of speculators related to rising oil prices.

Rep. Rubley thanked the Committee for their action saying, "The legislation encourages plans to be put in place and educational programs to be offered to raise public awareness to properly dispose of mercury thermostats as people upgrade to Energy Star-rated, mercury-free programmable thermostats. Our resources need to be recycled, and our waste properly handled so that the soil, waterways and air are protected. Hazardous post-consumer waste should not be disposed of in landfills, where dangerous metals can run off into streams, but instead be recycled and reused."

Rep. Longietti said, "I am pleased that my colleagues serving on the House Energy Committee support this resolution and are eager to find out the role of speculators in the price of oil in the commodities market. Over the last few years the trends have been startling in terms of the shift in investment when it comes to oil. The price of oil on the commodity market rose 13 percent last week alone. A public investigation is warranted and would be highly productive in learning more about what could be causing the record prices of oil."

"This resolution does not hold any weight of law but it does represent a clear bipartisan voice to our federal government that we are not going to ignore the signs that commodities' speculators could be the root problem of the rising fuel prices," Longietti said. "It is one of the few ways that we, as a state legislature, can act to deal with rising gas prices."

Rep. Bud George (D-Clearfield) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and Rep. Scott Hutchinson (R-Venango) serves as Minority Chair.

6/20/2008