New Ad Campaign Denounces Budget Shenanigans

that Threaten Pennsylvania Air and Water Quality

August 17th, 2017

Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship today launched a multimedia ad campaign urging Pennsylvania legislators not to support the current state budget, which includes radical provisions that threaten the Commonwealth’s air and water quality.

“Clean air and clean water are not bargaining chips for placating special interests, they are critical assets that are essential to our health, prosperity, and quality of life,” said David Jenkins, President of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship. “Pennsylvania’s elected officials must understand just how wrongheaded it is to cede the state’s environmental oversight to polluters, jeopardizing even the most prudent environmental standards, and exposing its citizens to what President Reagan called ‘the destructive trespass of pollution.’ “

The ad campaign comes after the state Senate voted on a version of the budget that decreases oversight of the state’s oil and gas industry.

One of the most harmful environmental provisions in the budget would create a politically appointed Air Quality Permit Advisory Committee with the power to block air quality permits that reduce harmful pollution and waste, including methane emissions and natural gas waste from drilling operations. The proposed budget also jeopardizes clean air and water by setting an arbitrary deadline for the approval of oil and gas permits, and outsourcing permit review to private companies.

The ads (see below) attest that “surrendering common sense safeguards against waste and pollution is not conservative, it is reckless. These measures squander valuable resources and release dangerous pollutants, like methane, into the air and water.”

The campaign includes ads critical of Senators Tom McGarrigle, Chuck McIlhinney, and Tom Killion who voted for the measures, and ones that praise Senator Stewart Greenleaf who voted against the measures.

The Legislature is expected to continue debate through the end of September.

Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship is urging legislators to avoid jeopardizing Pennsylvania’s ability to be a responsible steward of the state’s air, land, and water. The ad campaign will appear in print or online in 14 hometown newspapers over the next week.

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Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship (CRS) is a national non-profit grassroots organization founded on the premise that environmental stewardship and natural resource conservation are inherently conservative, and that the true conservative will be a good steward of the natural systems and resources that sustain life on earth.

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