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by: Last October, Mark Schweiker was sworn in as Pennsylvania's new governor. He brought with him a new administration and, we are hoping, a new direction in Pennsylvania's approach to the issue of global warming. The world's scientists are telling us that greenhouse gas emissions will cause climate change leading to rising seas, floods, droughts, disease and other environmental and health impacts. Pennsylvania produces about 1 percent of the world's man-made greenhouse gases, yet the previous administration, far from addressing the problem, avoided acknowledging there even was a problem. That's in stark contrast to what many neighboring states have done over the past several years. Nineteen states have already introduced action plans containing strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the effects of global warming. New York Gov. George Pataki created the New York State Greenhouse Gas Task Force to develop policy recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and responding to global warming. At the same time, he also signed an executive order requiring New York state agencies to purchase at least 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010. New Jersey, under then-Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, completed a greenhouse gas inventory back in 1997, and since then has put in place a greenhouse gas action plan with the specific goal of reducing 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions 3.5 percent by 2005. Last August, governors from six New England states &endash; Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire -- and the premiers of Canada's eastern provinces agreed to a regional climate change action plan that calls for a cooperative effort to examine the impact of global warming, explore methods for reducing greenhouse gases and implement those methods once they are formulated. In all these cases, state political leaders have taken a strong and visible role in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. The same must happen here in Pennsylvania if we are going to seriously address this state's contribution to global warming. That's why I am calling on Gov. Schweiker to take a strong leadership role and move Pennsylvania forward by acknowledging this state's responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions and announcing a significant state role in inventorying and reducing those emissions. Furthermore, I believe the major candidates for governor in 2002 -- Mike Fisher, Bob Casey and Ed Rendell -- also owe the people of Pennsylvania a public statement about their position on global warming and how they will address greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in Pennsylvania if elected. Pennsylvania's political leadership has, for too long, pretended that greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and global warming are not a concern. This new administration, and our candidates for governor in 2002, must break that silence, reverse that apathy and join our neighbors' efforts to avoid the devastating environmental, economic, social and health consequences that global warming, left unchecked, will bring. Archives: Rep. Richard Allen Geist
-- (R-Blair) |
