ed_rendell.jpg- Governor Rendell won passage of the landmark Growing Greener 2 environmental investment package. The $625 million initiative is cleaning up rivers and streams, improving parks, returning abandoned industrial sites to productive use, protecting open space and preserving farmland.
- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) got green plaudits last year when he proposed a plan to scrub 90 percent of mercury pollution from the state's coal-fired power plants by 2015, but a little-known state agency is now blocking his move. The Legislative Reference Bureau has sided with the majority of state senators, who object to Rendell's plan and want Pennsylvania to stick with less stringent federal mercury rules. The bureau says the Senate hasn't had enough time to review Rendell's regulation and thus the bureau has refused to publish it, meaning it's stuck in rule purgatory. Meanwhile, as the politicians and bureaucrats bicker, Pennsylvania's 36 coal-fired power plants continue liberally spewing mercury, which works its way up the food chain to humans and poses particular threats to the development of children.
- More than 24,000 state workers in Pennsylvania are back on the job today, after a fierce debate over budget issues -- including transportation and clean energy -- led Gov. Ed Rendell (D) to enact an unprecedented partial government shutdown yesterday. At a late-night press conference, Rendell said an agreement had been reached on a $27.3 billion budget for the fiscal year, which began July 1. The major sticking point had been an $850 million alternative-energy fund proposed by Rendell.
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