Sunday, February 23, 2025, 8:00PM |  40°
MENU
Advertisement
A Marcellus Shale well
1
MORE

Editorial: Republicans playing losing game with our money and our highways

Getty Images

Editorial: Republicans playing losing game with our money and our highways

Republican state legislators are poised to cost Pennsylvania billions of dollars in federal highway funding at the behest of the oil and gas industry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a collection of rules for emissions from oil and gas drilling sites that states must adopt, or else they will lose billions of possible dollars in federal highway funds. Pennsylvania is years behind schedule, and has a final deadline of Dec. 16, 2022.

It may be a kind of blackmail, but it’s effective — and it’s the law. It doesn’t matter what you think of the EPA’s rules: The way the regulations are set up, when the EPA says “jump,” Pennsylvania asks how high.

Unless you’re Daryl Metcalfe, the retiring Republican state legislator from Cranberry Township who has distinguished himself as one of Harrisburg’s most right-wing, and pugilistic, characters. A bosom friend of the oil and gas industry, Mr. Metcalfe chairs the State House’s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

Advertisement

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, doing its job, proposed a set of clean air regulations that would comply with the EPA’s rules and apply to both conventional oil and gas and shale gas extraction. But that regulation has to be rubber stamped by Mr. Metcalfe’s committee, which has objected, arguing that a 2016 state law requires that conventional and shale resources be regulated separately.

In response, on Tuesday the state’s Environmental Quality Board passed satisfactory regulations on the shale part of the industry. Now the question is: Can the DEP and EQB break out the conventional regulations from the combined rule and vote on them in short order? Or must they begin the rulemaking process again, from the very beginning, which would take at least two years?

Pennsylvania doesn’t have two years, but Mr. Metcalfe’s committee wants to require it. The party of small and efficient government is intentionally gumming up the work of state authorities. And for no reason.

The already-written regulation does not need to be reworked. Whatever game the Republican legislators think they’re playing, it’s a game that will only hurt Pennsylvania. They’re risking taxpayer dollars that should belong to Pennsylvania to play it. 

Advertisement

If the GOP wants to challenge the EPA’s rules and powers, they should do so through the proper channels: through filing challenges in the courts and winning control of the executive branch. Playing tough with the feds wastes time and money. It will make a difference in the highways we drive on, especially how safe they are.

Worse, in a time when Americans rightly worry about their democracy, the Republicans’ stunt contributes to the public’s sense that government today is nothing more than a game for insiders, rather than grown-up work performed by serious men and women for the good of the people of Pennsylvania. 

First Published: June 16, 2022, 6:59 p.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (41)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning
1
business
Amid funding uncertainty, Pitt pauses doctoral admissions
A new report advises retirees in 2025 to aim for just 3.7% when withdrawing from savings -- down from 4%. Over a 30-year retirement, that could mean the difference between financial security or outliving your cash in your 80s or 90s, financial experts say.
2
business
How much can retirees safely withdraw from their nest eggs? Financial experts weigh in.
Prospect Rutger McGroarty is right on track according to Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza.
3
sports
From The Point: When are the kids getting called up? Jason Spezza details the Penguins’ ‘thought-out’ plan
Pickers at Bonnie Brae Fruit Farms in Huntington Township, Adams County, harvest golden delicious apples on Sept. 10, 2024. President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen funding on several federal programs, including many that are under USDA and help farmers make their facilities more climate-friendly, protect against damage from wildlife, and help them employ more workers.
4
news
Pa. farmers feel funding pinch as federal freezes trigger labor and infrastructure instability
Carole Lee Fritsche Timblin
5
news
Carole Lee Fritsche Timblin, passionate educator and gift shop owner, dies at 89
A Marcellus Shale well  (Getty Images)
Getty Images
Advertisement
LATEST opinion
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story