Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
February 4, 2004
By Don Hopey
While Pittsburgh's budget is bathed in red, the state budget proposal released yesterday by Gov. Ed Rendell goes deep into the "green'' by emphasizing environmental and alternative energy initiatives and imposing new and potentially controversial fees on polluting industries.
The major initiatives link old-fashioned, apple-pie programs aimed at preserving farmland and open space, upgrading state and local parks, rebuilding historic communities and supporting local recycling efforts with programs to revive older industrial "brownfield" communities and clean thousands of miles of streams polluted by mine drainage.
In all, the proposed environmental policy expenditures total $1.4 billion over four years, most of it what Rendell called in his budget address "investment in Pennsylvania's quality of life.''
Rendell proposed paying for those programs with a new, $800 million Growing Greener Bond Fund, by raising the state fee on waste disposal by $5 a ton and extending the $4 state fee to residual waste, like coal ash, that is now exempt.
He also wants to require large industries and utilities to pay 15 cents for every pound of toxic chemicals released into the air, water or land.
The fee would be based on the amount of emissions that industries and utilities report to the federal Toxic Release Inventory program and would generate more than $20 million a year for hazardous waste site cleanup.
Pennsylvania, which has more than 11,000 such waste sites and a backlog of 500 sites identified for cleanup, would be the first state in the nation to impose such a fee.
John Hanger, president and chief executive officer of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, a statewide environmental group, said the governor's budget proposal is a "triple play for Pennsylvania,'' that boosts the economy, cleans the environment and protects public health.
"The governor recognizes that clean communities are competitive and polluted communities can't compete economically,'' Hanger said. "And it aims to raise money to reinvest in those older communities from the industries that pollute the air, land and water.''
But such a fee could cripple the state's utilities, said Pennsylvania Coal Association President George Ellis.
"The emissions fee will affect the competitiveness of coal-fired utilities and we will oppose any proposal that will make the costs of using Pennsylvania coal less competitive,'' Ellis said. "It could shift power generation and jobs to other states that chose not to impose such a fee.''
Although she expects some state legislators to be critical of the emissions fee, State Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty said any negative effects would be mitigated by capping a company's annual liability at $2 million.
Rendell also proposed expanding Pennsylvania Energy Harvest, a program to encourage clean and renewable energy projects from advanced energy sources.
Rendell also unveiled Growing Greener II, expanding the scope of the Ridge program to include targeting brownfield redevelopment projects; improvements in state watersheds, cleanup of 5,000 abandoned mine sites and other programs aimed at cleaning up the environment and revitalizing communities.
The Recycling Fund, which had halted one grant program for nearly two years because of fiscal concerns, will receive $25 million per year.
