Weak severance tax Pa. environment will hurt

To the Times: An Unethical Budget Policy

Government in America is built by the people for proper representation of what the needs are within our communities. Any tactic that undermines the decisionmaking responsibilities granted to our legislators by we the people is an unethical disgrace to our democracy.

Last week, in an effort to further cut the DEP’s budget, the Pennsylvania Senate passed a weak severance tax on fracking tied to a number of anti-environmental provisions that threaten our health, air and water. Not only is this tax among the lowest in the nation, it also contains a policy to relinquish authority of fracking permit approval and air pollution safeguards to a private advisory committee.

It is unacceptable that our state government would allow a committee, with an unknown private agenda that does not represent the people, to be responsible for decisions that directly affect our public environmental resources. These committee members could be aligned with corporate polluters to write the very rules they’re supposed to follow, with no accountability for their decisions.

This bill is the worst environmental policy in years and does not properly represent the needs of our communities to clean, safe air and water. Our state Representatives should oppose the Pennsylvania tax code, House Bill 542, until these anti-environmental protections are removed.