Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship Thursday launched a multimedia ad campaign urging Pennsylvania legislators not to support the current state budget bills, which include radical provisions that threaten the Commonwealth’s air and water quality.
“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,” said David Jenkins, President of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship. “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.’ “
The ad campaign comes after the state Senate voted on a version of the budget revenue package that decreases oversight of the state’s oil and gas industry.
One of the most harmful environmental provisions in the budget [House Bill 542] would create a politically appointed Air Quality Permit Advisory Committee with the power to block air quality permits that reduce harmful pollution and waste, including methane emissions and natural gas waste from drilling operations.
The proposed budget also jeopardizes clean air and water by setting an arbitrary deadline for the approval of oil and gas permits, and outsourcing permit review to private companies.
The ads attest that “surrendering common sense safeguards against waste and pollution is not conservative, it is reckless. These measures squander valuable resources and release dangerous pollutants, like methane, into the air and water.”
The Legislature is expected to continue debate on the measures soon.
Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship is urging legislators to avoid jeopardizing Pennsylvania’s ability to be a responsible steward of the state’s air, land, and water.
The ad campaign will appear in print or online in 14 hometown newspapers over the next week.
Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship is a national nonprofit 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.
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