Learn more about this issue by joining PA D5 Indivisible on Tuesday, May 25 at an Information Session. The Clean Air Council will present on why this is a bad energy bill and how we can stop it in its tracks! Register at https://forms.gle/ZxX9FBXtChYFpPRZ8
Background: SB 275 is currently in the PA Senate Local Government Committee. This bill is designed to be deceptive. The bill appears to be endorsing a choice in consumers’ ability to use whatever type of energy they want and prohibits bans on the use of any specific energy source. So for instance, if a township wanted to pass an ordinance, policy, resolution, saying that new developments in their township could only use renewable energy sources, they would not be able to do that because they would be discriminating against purveyors of gas and oil. Or if they wanted to offer an incentive for residents to get solar, this might be discriminating against gas/oil because no one is giving incentives for them.
In reality, this is sponsored by the fossil fuel industry in an attempt to slow the use of alternative, safer fuels. It is also another “preemption bill”, taking the ability of municipalities to make their own ordinances away and forcing them to abide by state law. A familiar example of a preemptive bill is Philadelphia wanting to ban plastic bags and the state telling them that they are not allowed.
This bill could come out of Committee as early as May 11th. We need to stop it in its tracks!
