What’s at Stake for Environmental Issues in November?
What’s at stake for environmental issues in the upcoming elections here in Pennsylvania for governor and US Senate? The short answer is: quite a bit.
Scott Wagner, Republican candidate running against Tom Wolf for governor, got things started with a bang way back in 2017 when a reporter from WITF asked him about climate change. He responded by claiming that it was caused by “the earth moving closer to the sun every year” and by the “body heat” given off by members of the earth’s ever increasing human population.
More recently this July, Wagner got into a wrangle with an 18-year-old environmental studies major at a town meeting in Montgomery County. Rose Strauss asked a question about climate change and was dismissed by Wagner as “young and naïve.” She countered by asking a follow-up question about the $200,000 the candidate has received from the fossil fuel industry. A video of the encounter went viral and provided some great publicity for Rose and the youth-oriented climate change organization, Sunrise, of which she is a member.
On the other hand, Wagner is also the owner of a trash hauling and recycling company committed, on its website at least, to partnering with its customers to “build a green community.” The website portrays a company committed to state of the art recycling. What he opposes, it seems, is most kinds of government involvement in protecting the environment and addressing climate change. Yet he founded and has run a company for 30 years that seems to be committed to trying to make recycling work economically. Someone should really ask him what he means by “going green.” We all might learn something interesting.
Governor Wolf, for his part, had a plan in 2014 for how to “get this new energy era right.” His campaign materials called for a severance tax on natural gas drilling, increased funding for the Department of Environmental Protection to oversee drilling practices and prevent environmental damage, greater transparency about the chemicals and procedures used in hydraulic fracturing, and some degree of local zoning control over the location of gas wells. But a recent piece by Jan Jarrett, a former head of the state environmental group Penn Future, notes that, “Environmental policy took a back seat during Governor Wolf's first term.”
There were a few bright spots, however, according to Jarrett and others: a continuing ban on fracking in the Delaware River watershed and in state parks, and the signing of a bipartisan bill supporting the solar industry in Pennsylvania. The bottom line: it has been almost impossible to implement good environmental policy with the legislature tightly controlled by Republicans. Overall, according to a WITF State Impact PA article on Wolf, environmental leaders feel he has great potential but hasn’t been able to realize it yet. They are hoping for a second term that is stronger on environmental issues.
Lou Barletta, the Republican candidate for US Senate running against Bob Casey, is stridently anti-environmental. And, as a serving US Congressman for many years, Barletta has a record on environmental issues to prove it. He voted in support of oil and gas drilling along the east coast; he voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouses gases; he signed the “no climate tax” pledge in 2010; he even voted to prevent manure from being considered a pollutant; and he voted against an extension of the Clean Water Act to cover non-navigable waters. He has a lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters of 5 percent out of a possible 100 percent.
Senator Casey, on the other hand, has been an advocate for action on climate change and active on a range of environmental issues. He supports the Paris Accords on climate. He strongly supports what he calls “bedrock environmental laws” like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. He has voted to designate the Arctic Wildlife Refuge as wilderness which would protect it from oil and gas drilling. Casey has a lifetime rating from the League of 94 percent. Last year, 2017, he scored 100 percent.
Both the Republican candidates have embraced the current president fully in terms of policy and personal style. For them the health of the economy is the dominant issue and the government is the problem, not a potential partner in creating solutions. Environmentalists and many Democrats, on the other hand, understand that government involvement and public investments in solutions to climate change and other serious environmental issues can drive economic development, create new, high-paying jobs, and improve human health and well-being, all while addressing big problems whose solutions grow more expensive every year.
Blue may not be the new green, but for those of us who care about environmental issues it is certainly the way to go in November.
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A note to the reader: Originally I had hoped to also write on the environmental views of our congressional candidates as well as the views of those running for the state legislature. But it was too much for one article! In addition, the candidates’ perspectives on environmental issue were not always apparent on their websites and in their campaign materials I will try to write on these candidates in an upcoming issue.
Meanwhile, I did learn a few additional things from the research for this article. First of all, at least among mainstream candidates, nobody is really running hard on climate change or other environmental issues. Nobody is really presenting a vision of what comes next to voters, of how we might move from an unsustainable approach that could well wreck our civilization to something better. In fact, it can be extremely hard to break through the happy talk and see where candidates actually stand. We need to keep after these people, even those we love!
Secondly, I came across a great new environmental group and some extremely useful resources that older state organizations have put together. Sunrise, an national organization with chapters in the Philadelphia area and elsewhere around the state, was created by young people in order to mobilize other young people to take action on climate change. If you google “Sunrise” it will take you right to their webpage, which is well worth checking out.
The Pennsylvania Common Conservation Agenda was my second big discovery. Twenty-six environmental organizations active in our state have come together to create a detailed, 20-page agenda for action in Pennsylvania. A great place to look if you are interested in formulating questions for candidates or writing a letter to the editor.
My third discovery was an old friend: The League of Conservation Voters Scorecard, a rating of our elected officials on the votes and statements while in office. Also, well worth checking out.
Will Lane, Chair
Gettysburg Democracy for America