Views from the States

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In California: Wine Over Everything… Especially Fracking

by Wade Dickey

Widener University Political Science Major

California relies heavily on their agricultural industry. They are known for their production of wine  and other crops like almonds and pistachios. If they didn’t put regulations on fracking in their state it would have affected the state harsher than most, because a lot of people in the state rely on their crops as a source of income. And the wastewater fracking produces could quite possibly destroy many farming sites across the state.That’s why when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill SB-4 into law it was a very good thing because it put in place the strictest regulations in the country on the fracking companies setting up drills in California. I think that it is good that they were able to put strict regulations on fracking, but I think that due to the amount of people that rely on agricultural production as a source of income, it is a bad thing to let fracking in the state at all. That is why members of the of the food and wine industry have come out and opposed this bill to keep their environment safe from the wastewater pollution. These people have come out and asked the governor to put fracking on waiting period, this is because the group says that the oil companies are after California’s Monterey Shale. This specific shale is important because it is a 1,750-square-mile area that may contain as much as 15 billion barrels of crude oil. It also happens to rest below a sizable portion of California farmland. So clearly even though there are strict restrictions on fracking in California due to the new law SB-4 people are still up in arms to stop fracking to keep the farmland safe in this state.

As California Begins Regulating Fracking, Agricultural Concerns Arise

 

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Parents in Philly Fed Up with Public Education

By Zeynep Ozdener

Recently Philadelphia has been under national scrutiny. Unfortunately, this white hot spotlight has centered around the education policies of the state of Pennsylvania. As public funding for education decreases, public schools in Philadelphia are suffering.

In light of these budget cuts, many Philadelphian parents have taken to writing complaint letters to Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Education. In fact, over 250 such letters have been sent in just the last week, and another 100 are expected to be formally filed within the next seven days. While around 43 percent of public education funding usually comes from the state nationwide, in Pennsylvania, it is only around 35 percent.

Overall, Pennsylvania is tenth on the list of least state-funded schools in America. This has caused a shortage of necessary school guidance counselors, arts programs, and even language programs for immigrant students. Indeed, over 3,000 public school employees were let go before the 2013-2014 school year began.

In my opinion, parents have every right to be outraged, and it is a solid, if small, first step that they are complaining to the proper authorities. However, as far as options go, Pennsylvania does not have many. In order to add almost 50 extra million dollars to the public education budget, the City Council has just today approved of a plan to purchase vacant properties from Philadelphia’s school district. However, Mayor Nutter has expressed disapproval, stating that the idea has many failings.

Whether or not he is actually right (Lord knows he has been wrong about many things in the past), $50 million has been allocated to the public school system, and already some of the laid-off employees have been re-employed. Hopefully, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania as a whole will be able to crawl out of this education-funding rut they have recently been in.

 

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Denver Plastic Bag Fee on the Horizon?

by Aubrey Dangelo

Widener University Political Science Major

The city of Denver, Colorado is considering the implementation of a city-wide fee on plastic bags, in an attempt to discourage their usage. If the measure passes, consumers will have to pay five cents for every single-use plastic bag that they receive from stores to carry their purchases. If the measure is adopted by the government of Denver, the fee will go into effect starting on April 1, 2014. Although this measure is facing a lot of opposition from lobbyists as well as plastic manufacturers, the proposed law is moderate in comparison to the ten cent per bag fees in other Colorado cities such as Breckenridge and Boulder, and the twenty cent per bag fee in both Aspen and Carbondale.
There is no doubt as to why this type of policy is gaining popularity in cities throughout not only the United States, but in cities all over the world. Most of the plastic bags used by consumers wind up in either landfills or in the ocean. Throughout the hundreds of years that it takes these bags to decompose, they release toxins into nearby soil, oceans, lakes and rivers. Pioneering the fight for Denver’s plastic bag fee legislation is City Councilwoman Debbie Ortega, who argues that the proposed ordinance will protect the environment by encouraging people to use reusable bags instead of single-use plastic bags. If individuals are not making responsible choices when it comes to the environment, it is necessary that laws are enforced that encourage them to change their practices, and that is the ultimate goal of this type of legislation.

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Why Tom Corbett Decided to Enter into the Medicaid Expansion Debate

by J. Wesley Leckrone

Associate Professor of Political Science, Widener University

Governor Corbett is generally cautious in most of his initiatives. By that I mean he seems to adopt the consensus position of conservative public officials. Consequently, I think he waited so long to see if a consensus position would develop among Republican governors for dealing with Medicaid expansion. By taking this wait and see approach he could monitor how the activities of other governors played out politically before taking a stand himself. There are enough GOP governors that have broken ranks and accepted Medicaid (Christie, Brewer, Synder) that he’s not completely breaking with conservative orthodoxy by offering the new plan.

I think he’s offering the new plan for three reasons: 1) Democrats are going to say that by not accepting the Medicaid extension Corbett is costing the state jobs in the health care industry. That could resonate in a sluggish economy. 2) It helps position him to the center of Tea Party type conservatives.  By offering a plan that extends healthcare, but through private companies rather than Medicaid, Corbett can say that he’s not opposed to all government action, rather he wants smart government action based on market principles. If the plan fails he can blame it on obstructionism from the Obama Administration. 3) He needs some sort of momentum going into 2014. The appearance of a plan, in the face of opposition from his own party, gives some evidence to suburban independents that he cares about the needy, especially in light of education cuts.

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In New York, If the Cats are Away the Mice will Play…

by Morgan Wieziolowski

Widener University Political Science Major

New York State needs to improve their regulation and inspection of water within the state, regardless of large staff cuts from the DEC in the past few years. Actions taken against polluters of NY water systems has dropped twenty-five percent in the past three years. Over 850 staff members that work for the state DEC (Divisions of Air and Water Quality Management) lost their jobs and no one seems to be covering the positions of those workers. Pollution and waste dumping is going unattended and unprotected, the state needs to change their system of management. Corporations and factories are able to self-report their waste and fuel emissions with no one to question or check whether the reports are accurate. Large facilities are refusing to follow their permits and regulations because they “don’t have to.” It is a little disheartening to think that a corporation in the United States is allowed practically free reign in their chemical/waste/disposals and emissions. Obviously the staff members for the DEC are not doing their jobs, or are unable to do the jobs of those who were laid off.

Governor Cuomo should address this issue directly by either proposing to shift some funding to the DEC, to rehire the people needed or hiring new staff that will accomplish the inspections and regulations necessary. He should crack down on corporations caught not following permits, by creating legislation with harsher consequences for the corporations, beyond the scope of fines. Sometimes it makes more sense financially for a Corporation to pollute the air/water, (breaking state/federal permits) rather than paying a fine. The state should come up with consequences that will actually incentivize the corporation to follow the laws. It could also start at a City Council meeting or a County level. Especially because the water pollution is more significant in certain areas of the state than others. For example a law could say, that any corporation in the state that has been proven to break the NYS or Federal environmental protection laws more than three times in a twenty year period, is no longer permitted to run business in the state of New York. Such a law would force companies and businesses to follow the regulations because they would want to maintain the business in the state, which is much more of an incentive, or consequence. However if there is no one regulating or inspecting that these Corporations are following the laws then there is not really a point in having a new piece of consequential legislation in the first place.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/new-york-pollution-inspections_n_3915472.html

 

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An Attempt to Keep Water Clean in New Jersey

by Wade Dickey

Widener University Political Science Major

Fracking is a highly profitable industry, and a very cheap but efficient way to extract natural gas and oil from the earth. But the drilling and pumping of chemicals into the ground to extract oil causes major harm to our water sources, and that is why the people of New Jersey want fracking to be banned here. The New Jersey State Senate just passed legislation to ban fracking in the state by a 30-5 margin, and is now pressuring Governor Christie to make this into a law as soon as possible. This piece of legislation gained supporters when it was brought to light that fracking waste is already being shipped over to Jersey from Pennsylvania by chemical companies like DuPont. And if we decide to add to that contamination as a state I think it will only harm the people of New Jersey in a long run.

I think this is a good idea to sign this recently passed legislation into a law, because fracking in Pennsylvania has created 1.3 billion gallons of contaminated wastewater and their environment is paying the price for it. We should keep our water sources clean and the environment fracking free.

http://www.environmentnewjersey.org/results/nje/nj-state-senate-passes-fracking-waste-ban-30-5-margin