CRS Denounces Budget Shenanigans that Threaten Pennsylvania Air and Water Quality

October 25, 2017

Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship is urging Pennsylvania legislators to oppose unprecedented amendments to a proposed state severance tax (HB 1401) that have been filed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that would gravely threaten the Commonwealth’s air and water quality.

Below is a press statement by David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship.

“Good stewardship of our natural resources is a value and obligation that must transcend partisanship and special interest politics.

 For the health and welfare of all Pennsylvanians, it is critical that the state House reject any amendments that would undermine the Department of Environmental Protection’s constitutional authority to protect Pennsylvania’s air and water. In addition to threatening our air and water, these amendments would result in a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.

Clean air and clean water are not bargaining chips for placating special interests, they are critical assets that are essential to our health, prosperity, and quality of life. Pennsylvania’s elected officials must understand just how wrongheaded it is to cede the state’s environmental oversight to polluters, jeopardizing even the most prudent environmental standards, and exposing its citizens to what President Reagan called ‘the destructive trespass of pollution.’

Each year, oil and gas companies emit well over 110,000 tons of methane, which means wasted natural gas, polluted air, and lost revenue. We urge the Pennsylvania House to support common sense solutions and reject any amendment that could block the adoption of clean air protections.”

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Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship (CRS) is a national non-profit grassroots organization founded on the premise that environmental stewardship and natural resource conservation are inherently conservative, and that the true conservative will be a good steward of the natural systems and resources that sustain life on earth.