SAY NO TO WOLF'S "RESTORE PENNSYLVANIA" INDUSTRY-FRIENDLY SEVERANCE TAX PLAN
NEW!! Better Path Coalition's Letter to Senate and House Dem Cosponsors -- Read it here!
Restore Pennsylvania is Governor Tom Wolf's severance tax proposal that would pay for his $4.5 billion 4-year spending plan that would be funded by bonds that would be paid off with severance tax revenue for the next 20 years.
For the month of July, the Better Path Coalition is asking you to call co-sponsors every Monday and tell them to remove their names from the bill. The House version is HB1585 and the Senate version is SB725. We will be posting the list of co-sponsors on social media regularly and will revise the list as they remove themselves.
We have less than 12 years left to avoid climate chaos. Twenty years of drilling and fracking means twenty years of leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas methane that, in those years, is 86 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide is. It means more ethane and NOx in our atmosphere. It means more on the ground impacts - explosions, fires, spills, destroyed property value, taking of land by eminent domain, noise pollution, light pollution, increased truck traffic, loss of quality of life and much more. It also means twenty more years of illnesses and deaths.
The severance tax is a barrier to real action on climate change. It needs to be off the table once and for all.
This is part of our #PAClimateCountdown campaign. Each day, we're counting down the days we have left to address climate change with tweets directed at co-sponsors. Twitter users, please search the hashtag and retweet what you see!
​
RESTORE PENNSYLVANIA IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER
We have 12 years to address climate change. Production of the greenhouse gases methane and ethane is a major contributor. That’s one reason scientists are urging us to KEEP THEM IN THE GROUND.
​
Another is the damage done on the ground by the natural gas and petrochemical industries. More than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies, many based on data from PA, document a wide range of harms already occurring or likely to occur. Scientists and healthcare providers warn of the grave dangers of expanding the natural gas and petrochemical industries.
​
Finally, scientists, healthcare providers, advocates, and concerned citizens alike know that the recipe we really need is the one for a transition to a clean, renewable energy future for Pennsylvania and that continued expansion of the natural gas and petrochemical industries will never get us there.