HB 965: The latest attack on environmental protection.

It's typically easy to tell if a piece of legislation is aimed at helping polluters, no matter how hard policymakers try to hide it. Take the General Assembly's recent effort to eliminate new environmental regulations on conventional oil and gas. While the language was buried in a little read bill, it's intent was plain as day.

For the General Assembly's next attack on the environment, they're trying a new tactic - bury their intent in regulatory legalese. In April, the Senate took up a non-controversial bill (Senate Bill 562) that its legislative sponsor, Senator Gordner (R-Bloomsburg), argued would provide the General Assembly more time to study and assess new regulations making their way through the independent review process. The bill quickly passed unanimously, with little debate, and no media fanfare.

The House then took up a similar bill (House Bill 965) and its sponsor, Rep. Godshall (R-Montgomery), made the same legislative oversight argument Sen. Gordner made about his bill. But with many fundamentally important environmental regulations working through the review process such as the Clean Power Plan, new oil and gas rules, and methane leakage regulations, PennFuture and other organizations took a closer look at the bill language and found something troubling.

The legislation is essentially a Trojan horse. It does include language that would give the General Assembly a defined amount of time to review new regulations before it makes it to the final independent review steps, which already include review by legislators. But it also grants new power to the standing committees of the legislature to delay - potentially indefinitely - any regulation they don't like. It also blocks state agencies from publicly posting their regulatory intent and goals in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. In other words, House Bill 965 and Senate Bill 562, in a convoluted way, aim to provide the legislature constitutionally debatable veto power over new regulations while greatly limiting public transparency.

To put it bluntly, this legislation puts not just environmental rules in jeopardy, but any regulatory matter in limbo.

Once the true intent of the legislation was made apparent, a real debate on the bill ensued in the House. Last week, after contentious debate, House Bill 965 passed 113-84, with all but one Democratic member and five Republican members voting against it. Because there were differences between the House and Senate versions, the Senate has now taken up House Bill 965 in an attempt to quickly pass it before it adjourns for the remainder of the year.

It's critical that this bill fail to make it into law as it imperils many major environmental efforts to clean the Commonwealth's air, land, and waters for present and future generations.

Matt Stepp is policy director for PennFuture and is based in Philadelphia. He tweets @MatthewStepp.

A citizen's guide to the legislative home stretch in Harrisburg

The 2013-2014 session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly is down to five scheduled legislative session days: October 6, 7, 8, 14 and 15.

It is possible that either the House or the Senate could return to Harrisburg to cast votes in a lame duck session after the November 4 election. However, statements from key Senate Republican and House Republican leaders suggest that such votes are unlikely.

There are scores of bills that could be voted and potentially sent to the governor during the remaining five days of session. These five days will be characterized by constant pressure from lobbyists and advocacy organizations, intense bargaining between House and Senate Republican leaders, and urgent calls from all quarters for bills to be voted given the slipping sands of legislative time. With polls showing Governor Tom Corbett consistently trailing challenger Tom Wolf, a potential change in administration is also casting a shadow over the end of the session and fueling an urgent need by some interests to move legislation.

While there is no guarantee that these five days will match the excitement and chaos of Tuesday night's Kansas City-Oakland playoff tilt, we're expecting our fair share of wild card drama over the coming fortnight.

We're also going to need citizens to be there with PennFuture in the days ahead, and not just in spirit or as spectators as it is critical that legislators hear from their constituents on several pressing pieces of environmental and energy legislation.

Here is a scorecard of some of the bills we're following:

House Bill 1565 would undermine the current requirements for riparian buffers that protect High Quality and Exceptional Value streams, Pennsylvania's best waters. Riparian buffers reduce flooding and stormwater runoff, improve water quality, decrease pollution, protect drinking water and improve habitat for fish and other wildlife.

HB 1565 moved through the House quickly in late September. It is now expected to be voted by the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on October 6, and may be considered by the full Senate soon thereafter. PennFuture is working with a coalition of environmental, conservation and angling organizations to stop the bill.

House Bill 2354 would delay and harm Pennsylvania's ability to develop an effective plan to comply with the proposed U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan. The EPA plan would deliver significant carbon pollution reductions from power plants, help fight global warming, and improve public health, and represents an extraordinary opportunity to boost renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts in Pennsylvania and across America.

HB 2354 moved through the House quickly in late June. It is now expected to be voted by the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on October 6, and may be considered by the full Senate soon thereafter. PennFuture is working with a coalition of environmental and public health organizations to stop the bill.

House Bill 343, sponsored by Rep. Ron Miller, R-York, would provide important and long overdue standards for private well-water construction that will protect human health and water resources. Over three million Pennsylvania residents rely on one million private water wells for their drinking water supply, with approximately 20,000 wells drilled annually. Only Michigan has a larger population served by private water supplies. Despite these facts, Pennsylvania remains one of two states lacking statewide regulations for private well construction.

The House passed HB 343 by a wide margin on June 27, but it remains to be seen whether the bill will be considered by the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee during its last voting meeting of the session on October 6.

House Bill 34, sponsored by Rep. Kate Harper, R-Montgomery, would require high-performance green building standards in most state-owned building construction projects. Passage of the bill would be a win for both the environment and Pennsylvania taxpayers as there would be substantial reduction in operating costs and energy and water use over the life of the buildings.

The House passed HB 34 by a wide margin in early 2013, but the bill has been stalled in the Senate. Attention may now be shifting in the waning days of the session to companion legislation sponsored by Senator John Rafferty, R-Montgomery.

Stay tuned. Take full advantage of the breaks between playoff innings and other activities. We're going to need your help.

Steve Stroman is state policy director for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. He tweets @SteveStroman1.