Community members all over the state were relieved today to hear that Governor Wolf vetoed HB 1100, a bill passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in February that would give away $22 million every year in taxpayer subsidies to petrochemical companies like Shell while encouraging fracking and cracking (the production of even more single-use plastic). Because the natural gas market is already flooded, the industry is desperately trying to build ethane cracker plants to make plastic with the product instead and wants the government to subsidize their buildout. Meanwhile, numerous fracking companies have already declared bankruptcy. HB 1100 would have been a travesty for local jobs and growth, and devastating for public health.
“Rural communities all over the state are relieved to hear that Governor Wolf vetoed HB 1100, an expensive handout to some of the largest corporations in the world. It was irresponsible to promise millions of dollars of revenue from taxes when our communities’ education, healthcare, and infrastructure are crumbling,” said Veronica Coptis, Executive Director of the Center for Coalfield Justice.
“In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, preventing big corporation giveaways allows for more resources to be devoted to working people’s needs. We must be focusing on rebuilding our economy to create millions of good, family-sustaining jobs but supporting our infrastructure, shifting to clean energy, and preparing our communities to be more resilient,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, Executive Director of POWERInterfaith, a founding member of the PA Climate Equity Table*.
We thank Governor Wolf for standing with us to stop yet another public investment into a fossil-fueled economy, one that locks us into years of increased extraction and production, meaning more impacts to our air, our water, our communities, and our vulnerable economies.
While people everywhere struggle to find secure, good-paying jobs that support their families without making themselves and those in their communities sick, this legislation represented not just an irresponsible policy, but an immoral one.
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*The PA Climate Equity Table seeks to unite urban, rural, and suburban voices for racial, economic, and climate justice by building: community; electoral power; shared racial and environmental justice analysis; and policy change. We are fighting for a just and equitable transition from our extractive economy to an economy that is regenerative, renewable, and just.
