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Obama Administration Managing Expectations of Climate Change Summit

Later this year, the Obama Administration will be attending a climate change summit in Paris. The Administration is hopeful of coming out of the summit with an international pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, they are being careful not to have a repeat of the last summit, held in Copenhagen in 2009.

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Opposition to Six Flags Solar Farm Mount

The Sierra Club and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection have joined in the opposition over the location where Six Flags Amusement Park recently announced it is considering building a solar farm. To build the solar farm, Six Flags would need to cut down thousands of trees that currently dot the landscape.

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Wolf, Business, Assembly Continue Chin to Chin

This week, the Wolf Administration, business community and the leaders of the General Assembly continued to face off over pension reform and severance taxes, two major pieces of the 2015-2016 budget puzzle.

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USDA’s Climate Plan Has Farm-Based Renewables in Leading Role

During a speech at Michigan State University, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak laid out a plan, in which agricultural producers will play a major role in helping to address climate change.

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White House Hosts Climate Infrastructure Roundtable

As part of Obama’s Build America Investment Initiative, the White House hosted around 90 industry individuals at a roundtable this week.

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Gladys Brown Becomes PUC Chairman

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Thursday recognized Gov. Tom Wolf’s appointment of Commissioner Gladys M. Brown as the PUC’s new Chairman. She replaces Robert F. Powelson of Chester County, who will remain as Commissioner. John F. Coleman Jr. of Centre County will remain as Vice Chairman.

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Wolf, General Assembly Continue to Move Toward June Clash

With Easter behind and a Memorial Day break ahead, the Governor and the General Assembly spent most of the last two weeks setting the stage for what is expected to be a long month of negotiations on the state budget in June.

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What is a “QER?” Outline for Energy Policy

This week, the Obama administration rolled out its first Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), a broad study of the nation’s energy policies that calls for programs aimed at making the electric grid more resilient, accelerating the replacement of aging pipelines, improving measurement of methane emissions, coordinating products shipped by rail and reviewing the release authorities of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

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Pennsylvania Watershed Improvement Act – Encourage Realistic Credits, Competitive Bidding

In an effort to facilitate compliance with federal nutrient management requirements, Sen. Elder Vogel Jr. (R-Beaver) introduced SB 724, the Watershed Improvement Act. Filing the legislation followed release of a special report by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on economic consequences of failure in Pennsylvania’s efforts to meet EPA requirements for clean up of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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Can Work Groups Solve the State’s Budget Mess?

In early March, Governor Wolf proposed his ambitious vision for Pennsylvania, with promises of increased education funding, property tax reductions, and a variety of income, sales and shale gas tax hikes to support his plans. Supporters called his proposal bold, and opponents called the plan dead on arrival. All agreed that the proposal was historic in one way or another, and all agreed that the state was facing a budget deficit of at least $1.8 billion.

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