People discuss clean power plan for state
MARS — The People’s Clean Power Plan came to Mars to listen, and 21 citizens spoke up.
Michael Morrill, executive director of the Keystone Progress Education Fund, said Mars is one of 10 to 12 Pennsylvania communities where the People’s Clean Power Plan listening tour will stop to hear citizens’ input on creating a clean power plan.
Morill said President Obama and Gov. Tom Wolf created clean power plans, but did not ask citizens for their input on the plans.
“We thought if we’re putting together a people’s clean power plan, we should talk to the people,” Morill said Wednesday at the Mars Public Library.
After collecting input from citizens across Pennsylvania, the People’s Clean Power Plan will put together a first draft of a plan.
A second draft will be created by the citizens interested in helping, and that draft will be sent to all who attended the listening sessions for comments.
A final plan will then be sent to Obama, Wolf, the state Legislature and regulatory authorities.
While Morrill doesn’t expect the plan to be adopted, he does expect state officials and legislators to consider options they hadn’t thought of.
“The politicians listened to drillers, but they didn’t listen to the people in the community,” Morrill said.
Some of the clean power ideas shared by the people at the meeting included regulations by local municipalities of solar panels, the lack of pressure on local officials to enact environmental ordinances and resolutions, that a giant leap to truly clean power is needed, and that the poorest people worldwide are the victims of “dirty power.”
Several members of Marcellus Outreach Butler attended as did representatives of environmental groups from Pittsburgh, Irwin in Westmoreland County, and Elk County.
Diane Sipe summed up the thoughts of those who attended the meeting: “The future is here, we just have to seize it.”
