Karen Feridun

Campaigns

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  DEP, Don't Let Drillers Dump Toxic, Radioactive Waste on Our Roads

  This petition is a companion to a sign-on letter organizations are invited to sign. Find the letter here. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfywuN-6wKXEOW2Zwqy5dHmhIt2XtwlHxJ2AgiQaA8KRPk8yQ/viewform Here's an excerpt: Kurt Klapkowski, Director of the Bureau of Oil and Gas Planning and Program Management at DEP, told the Council, “We have to be able to defend our decisions with data. And that was the attempt, with working with Penn State, that's what we were attempting to do was to develop that data to be able to have a program that we could go to the Environmental Hearing Board and the Commonwealth Court and Supreme Court under the constitution and under the statutes that we administer, that would be defensible.” He continued, “I don’t think we would have any objection to working with [the Council] and the Legislature to try to figure out a way to develop that data. I think we're hopeful that the study that we funded and expect to have finished will provide data that will allow us to have a program that we can defend in court. But that's really the bottom line for us, I mean we can only exercise the authority that we’re given within the limitations that we have and that's what we're attempting to do.” The study he refers to is the PennState study expected to be completed by the end of the year. A growing body of peer-reviewed research has consistently demonstrated that road spreading of drilling waste damages the environment and poses risks to public health. As is the case with virtually all peer-reviewed research on oil & gas drilling, the trajectory has been one that has broadened and deepened our understanding of impacts already occurring and potential risks, not one that has reversed our thinking in any way. Spending taxpayer dollars in the search for data to support your intended policy shift is an unacceptable professional and ethical breach of your duty to the Constitution you swore to uphold. DEP must halt any plans to develop regulations that would allow road spreading of drilling waste. Instead, the DEP must ban road spreading of drilling waste under any circumstances.

  1,592 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
• Don't Tax Drilling, Ban It!

  Our state politicians have been debating imposing a severance, or extraction, tax on the natural gas companies operating in PA. Some proposals recommend putting some of the revenue collected into the general fund. Others recommend that it all go into paying to repair the damage drilling has done to our infrastructure and environment. The fact is that no amount of severance tax will come close to paying for the damage. We're calling on our politicians to stop talking about taxing drilling and start acting on ending it.

  114 of 200 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
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  PA DEP, We Deserve to Know the Full Story on PFAS and Fracking

  In revealing that PFAS chemicals have been used in fracking here in PA, the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer has done the work your state regulators have failed to do. This failure comes on the heels of so many others that a Grand Jury convened to look at the industry couldn't help but report a year ago on how badly our regulators have failed us. The Editorial Board describes DEP's attitude as "willful ignorance." That's putting it mildly. Time for an attitude adjustment at DEP for the good of all Pennsylvanians. Philadelphia Inquirer editorial - https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/fracking-pennsylvania-pfas-toxic-chemicals-water-20210805.html PFAS report by PSR - https://www.psr.org/blog/new-report-fracking-with-forever-chemicals/ Grand Jury report - https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/taking-action/press-releases/43rd-statewide-grand-jury-finds-pennsylvania-failed-to-protect-citizens-during-fracking-boom/

  37 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
• Gov. Wolf: Don't raid alternative energy funds to finance more pipelines

  Governor Tom Wolf recently announced the new PIPE program that takes $24 million from an alternative energy program to further incentivize construction of natural gas pipelines in the state. This program would connect schools, hospitals, municipalities, manufacturing plants, and industrial parks to natural gas distribution lines, creating even more customers for the industry that is putting our communities and our most vulnerable populations -- children, the elderly, and the infirmed -- at risk. Building more pipelines when we should be transitioning away from fossil fuels is irresponsible. Asking the very populations that are most vulnerable to the immediate health and safety impacts to contribute to their own potential undoing is completely unacceptable.

  2,773 of 3,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
• Vote No to Any Severance Tax for Fracking in PA

  The PA Senate passed a budget that devastates the environment and trades off DEP authority over fracking for a weak severance tax. An alternative has been proposed that calls itself a People's Budget that establishes a severance tax with no strings attached. Neither alternative is acceptable. We have been spared the institutionalization of fracking because we have no severance tax. Instead, we've had an impact fee that has been misappropriated, like the community that used impact fee dollars to bring an American Idol contestant to town for a concert. Seriously. http://www.paauditor.gov/press-releases/auditor-general-depasquale-says-gas-drilling-impact-fee-law-must-be-amended-to-clarify-spending-guidelines-improve-oversight Harrisburg exists in a bubble immune from the more than 900 peer-reviewed studies that make a case for a ban, the science on climate change that could not be clearer at this point, and the impacts that have devastated communities. Governor Tom Wolf has done everything in his power to EXPAND the market for natural gas and ethane when reasonable public officials outside of the bubble are committing to transitioning away from all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Don't be duped by the People's Budget alternative. A real People's Budget would contain real solutions to fund education and other important programs, not tie them to a boom/bust industry. Please sign the petition, share it, and then call your legislators to tell them to vote NO to any severance tax proposal.

  731 of 800 Signatures

  Created by Karen R. Feridun
• Governor Wolf, Add Pennsylvania to the U.S. Climate Alliance

  The Trump administration has done everything it can to ignore climate change and promote a dangerous expansion of fossil fuel production. Governors are stepping up to take the kind of leadership on climate change missing in Washington. Governors Cuomo, Inslee, and Brown launched the U.S. Climate Alliance when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Fifteen governors have signed on. Governor Wolf is not among them. As COP 23 convenes in Germany, it's time for Governor Wolf to join with his colleagues and add Pennsylvania to the U.S. Climate Alliance. Read more about the U.S. Climate Alliance here: https://www.usclimatealliance.org/

  2,868 of 3,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen R. Feridun
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  PA Lawmakers, Water Is Life. Privatizing It Is Not An Option.

  A handful of companies want to own our community water systems in Pennsylvania. It's a power play in three acts that started with the passage of legislation in 2012 that would allow companies to pass along the costs of acquiring systems to their rate payers. Act 2 in 2016 was the passage of legislation that would allow municipalities to sell their water systems to these companies for "fair market value." The curtain rose on Act 3 this year with the introduction of SB 597, the so-called Water Quality Accountability Act that heaps costs and reporting requirements on municipalities to entice them to sell their systems. Walter Lynch, CEO of American Water Works, has made no bones about the bill’s real intent. Here’s an excerpt from a Q4 2020 earnings call. Asked if any type of emerging state legislation would help facilitate Mergers & Acquisitions, Lynch responded, “Well, let me start with [the] Water Quality Accountability Act that started in New Jersey that two other states have adopted. I think that is being considered in other states within our footprint. So I would look out for that primarily in the Midwest and that again, establishes standards that are uniform across the sector, whether a municipally-owned or investor-owned, around cybersecurity, some of the challenges there, around pipe replacement rates, about long-term asset management plans. And that's been instrumental in many of the discussions we've had in the states where we operate that have that legislation. So I think it's a wake up call for many municipalities to say, maybe we should talk to American Water about selling assistance.” And here’s Lynch during an investor call a year earlier, “We work with state legislators and regulators to come up with rule making and legislation that enables these acquisitions to happen. And we’ve been doing this for a decade, and we’ve been very successful at it.” American Water Works is a member of the National Association of Water Companies, the industry front group that wrote the bill before pushing it in several states. Robert Powelson is President and CEO of NAWC. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he was the chair of the PA Public Utility Commission before spending a year at FERC approving natural gas interstate transmission pipelines and then heading to NAWC. When the PA Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure took up the bill, committee chair Senator Tommy Tomlinson did a gut and replace maneuver that removed all of the language of the bill and put it in an amendment with one important alteration. The bill was written as an amendment to Title 25. Tomlinson's amendment changed that to Title 66. In plain English, it means he took the bill out of the authority of the Department of Environmental Protection and handed it to the Public Utility Commission. The amended bill was approved by the committee with bipartisan support. Tomlinson's former chief of staff is the lobbyist for Aqua America. The company's Government Relations chief spent six years as a staffer in PA legisative offices, including a stint in the Speaker's office. And speaking of the Speaker, Mike Turzai went to work for Essential Utilities the day after resigning from the House. Essential Utilities is Aqua's new name now that it has expanded into the gas business with the purchase of Peoples Gas. PA American Water has its own tie to our legislature. They hired their lobbyist right after his mother, Kim Ward, became Senate Majority Leader in January. Outside of the customary, and all-too-often successful, grip of the industry are many who have expressed concerns about the Water Quality Accountability Act. The PA Rural Water Association, the PA Municipality Authorities Association, and the Water Works Operators' Association of PA have written letters opposing the legislation. According to PA Environmental Digest, the PA State Association of Township Supervisors, PA State Association of Boroughs and the PA Municipal League also oppose the legislation. This petition is a companion to a sign on letter I'll be delivering in the coming weeks. To see a version of the letter with all of the hyperlinks you can follow to get even more information about dangerous bill, visit bit.ly/WQAAlinks. If your organization would like to sign the letter, please use our sign-on form you can find at bit.ly/WQAAletter. Tell your legislators to protect community water systems and your affordable access to water by voting NO to SB 597.

  1,244 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
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  Stop Fracked Gas Export on the Delaware River

  New Fortress Energy and subsidiary Delaware River Partners are planning to build a port terminal to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas liquids (NGLs) on the Delaware River in Gibbstown, NJ. This is about 15 minutes south of Philadelphia, 2.7 miles from Chester, PA and adjoins the back yards of people in Gibbstown, NJ. Trains and trucks would carry dangerous and potentially explosive LNG over 200 miles from Wyalusing, PA, where New Fortress is building a LNG processing plant from regional fracked gas to Gibbstown through communities who don’t even know about it. LNG would be transferred from trucks and rail cars directly to enormous ships 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The ships would travel down the river, past Wilmington and other Delaware and New Jersey bay communities, overseas to Puerto Rico, Ireland and other foreign ports where New Fortress hopes to make their fortune. We want to send the strongest message we can to the Commissioners! Please strengthen our message with your signature!

  5,154 of 6,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
• Taking Your Messages to Paris

  This isn't your typical petition with the option to add a message. This is all about the message, your message to President Obama. I'll be heading to Paris for COP 21 in a few days. I'd like to take with me your messages to President Obama on fracking and climate change. I can't promise that I'll be able to use them all in actions while I'm there, but I'll do my best and will definitely make sure that they are delivered electronically to him and to PA Governor Wolf.

  938 of 1,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun
• PA Senate, Don't Put a Climate Denier in Charge of the DEP

  Our state senate is going to vote on Chris Abruzzo's nomination to head up the DEP as early as this week. Here's what he told the Environmental Resources and Energy committee when asked about climate change. "Abruzzo told the committee he does believe climate change is occurring and that it seems to be at least partially attributable to human factors, but he does not view it as harmful and sees no reason for Pennsylvania to adopt new policies to address it." And still the committee voted to approve him 10 - 1! Daylin Leach was the ONLY member of the committee to vote NO! Our senators need to know we don't want a climate denier heading up the DEP! http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/12/04/corbetts-pick-to-run-dep-does-not-view-climate-change-as-harmful/

  10,592 of 15,000 Signatures

  Created by Karen Feridun