The House Republican Policy Committee Chaired by Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana) Friday held a hearing in Latrobe where a bipartisan group of state legislators heard from representatives of Pennsylvania’s coal industry about the positive impacts the sector has on the Commonwealth’s economy and potential roadblocks preventing additional job creation.

Members of Congress are set to return next week after five weeks of summer recess, an extensive amount of time used to reconnect with constituencies. However, with only a few short weeks before the November elections (the House has only 13 legislative business days set aside before Nov. 6), questions remain as to just how much political will lawmakers possess as they confront a long list of pending issues and issues which could turn votes in the election.

Only 24 days remain until the start of the Fall Legislative Session in Harrisburg. Without a lame duck session scheduled, legislators will have only a few days to finalize legislation before starting over in January in the new 2013-14 legislative session. ERG will provide updates in the coming weeks about the schedule and docket for the General Assembly’s fall session.

The country’s heartland has been experiencing a significant drought, one that has decimated much of next year’s corn and soybean reserves. With fewer crops for food for people, livestock, and biofuels production, decisions affecting the cost and availability of these cash grains will almost certainly become political.

Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney last week unveiled a 21 page energy plan aimed at making the United States independent of overseas oil by 2020.  The plan would attempt to achieve in seven years what every president since Richard Nixon has proposed – US energy self-sufficiency.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has adopted a Final Order extending Pennsylvania’s Act 129, which set energy savings goals for the Commonwealth. The order creates new goals for the period from June 1, 2013 to May 31, 2016.

On Wednesday, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, who heard the legal challenge against the state’s new Voter ID law, ruled that the law is constitutional, and refused to grant an injunction against implementation of the provisions of the law.

U.S. Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy & Forestry, and Carl T. Shaffer, president of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, hosted a “Barnyard Discussion” on agriculture policy during Penn State University’s Ag Progress Days.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued a decision in a lawsuit brought against the state by seven municipalities challenging the legality of Act 13, the Marcellus Shale extraction fee legislation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week said drinking water is safe to consume in Dimock, Pa., private drinking water wells, after testing wells, samples provided by residents, DEP and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. The EPA said, “Based on the outcome of that sampling, EPA has determined that there are not levels of contaminants present that would require additional action by the Agency.”