Pa. governor defends policy

Associated Press

HARRISBURG

The Corbett administration on Monday defended its policies on renewable energy and conservation, and said it is not putting aside those efforts in favor of Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry.

The administration made the statements in response to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story that said the administration is stripping employees from renewable energy and conservation programs.

The newspaper also reported that the administration is forbidding state executive agencies from signing clean-energy contracts.

The programs were emphasized by previous governors, but the Corbett administration says the changes are merely part of the new approach by Gov. Tom Corbett’s energy executive, Patrick Henderson, it said.

“Gov. Corbett under-stands the critical importance of all energy resources, including renewables, both to our economy and our quality of life,” Henderson wrote in a letter Monday responding to the Post-Gazette story. “He remains committed to policies which respect taxpayer dollars and grow all our energy industries in a sustainable manner.”

Henderson said the Office of Energy and Technology Deployment in the state Department of Environmental Protection was renamed, not disbanded, and he said the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act program, which helps school districts and local governments invest in energy conservation project, is under review.

The office that administers the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act program is one of several that lost employees, the Post-Gazette reported.

Rep. William Adolph, R-Delaware, who wrote the Energy Savings Act, is talking to Corbett’s office about how the program will be administered, said Adolph’s spokesman, Mike Stoll.

“We’re still working with the administration to understand its position on the program,” Stoll told the Post-Gazette. “It’s saying this is part of a consolidation of programs, but that doesn’t change the requirements of the act.”

Christina Simeone, director of the Energy Center for environmental advocacy group PennFuture, and formerly the special assistant for energy and climate at the DEP, told the Post-Gazette she worries that changes in policy and reductions in staff are crippling.