One of the major challenges with environmental permitting in Pennsylvania is not actually securing the permit itself.  A company can go through all the right steps, secure a permit through the Department of Environmental Protection which will appropriately protect the environment, but still be caught up in a world of uncertainty about whether their project can move forward when an approved permit is appealed to the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB).
 
A proposed energy generation project in Renovo was infamously delayed and then finally abandoned by the company due to uncertainty caused by appeals to their permits considered at the Environmental Hearing Board brought by well-funded environmental organizations with the primary goal of blocking the project completely, a project which was completely supported by the community where it was to be built.  Pennsylvania could desperately use the energy on our grid that this project would be generating, but unfortunately, our permit appeal system made this impossible.
 
One solution to this issue, which I am proposing in my legislation, is to limit the total amount of time that a permit appeal can be pending before the EHB to 1 year.  This would allow our business community looking to make investments in Pennsylvania to know that there is a concrete window that this process can take and that the process will not be allowed to be continued and dragged out indefinitely.
 
This legislation is a small and measured step that still allows for an appeal process, but requires it to play out along a reasonable timeline.  Please join me in sponsoring this important legislation to allow Pennsylvania’s state functions to operate more efficiently.