About Gov. Wolf’s RestorePA plan | PennLive letters

The Governor’s RestorePA plan overlooks the necessities of the Commonwealth in order to grab short-term gains. RestorePA is a twenty-year guarantee to the natural gas industry, sold to us with a four-year severance tax slush fund. The plan would bring benefits to Pennsylvania like that of more petrochemical infrastructure and an increase in consumer base access for natural gas suppliers. To pay off the required debt Gov. Wolf is ready to welcome 20,000 new shale gas wells.

Scientific consensus explains that we have less than 12 years to avoid the catastrophic effects of altering our global climate. In reaction, the governor has joined the US Climate Alliance and has released his Climate Action Plan, which intends to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions of the Commonwealth. However, one must ask if this is a serious endeavor given his long-term commitment to the oil and gas industry proposed by the RestorePA severance tax.

It is time that we plan for a sustainable future. Deliberate and difficult actions are required today in order to ensure that our future is not one riddled with climate emergencies. We need an economy that respects the labor of the workers who produce a benefit to all in our society. Not one that benefits only a corporate class who is savvy enough to legislate their advantage.

There is a better way to restore Pennsylvania than the detrimental arrangement of RestorePA. Our legislature should be encouraged to hold the necessities of our communities above short-term gratifications.

Timothy Runkle, Elizabethtown Borough

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