Volunteer on eleCtion Day

Help protect the integrity of the elections in Philly

As a volunteer, you will help ensure that problems that occur on election day are quickly resolved. For more information, visit www.seventy.org/volutneer or contact Leah Pillsbury, director of civic programs at lpillsbury@seventy.org or 215-557-3600 extension 109.

Winters further stated that by enacting a fair natural gas extraction tax and putting the funds towards infrastructure and alternative energy sources, Pennsylvania will be able to maintain secure jobs when the resource is exhausted in 20 years.

Winters also believes that because big gas companies will be transporting the natural gas by our roads and bridges with their trucks, a portion of their profit should go towards their maintenance.

“Forty-one percent of trucks in Pennsylvania were also found to be in violation of regulations by having faulty breaks, leaking tanks and insecure equipment,” Winters said.

This summer an Oct. 1 deadline was set by legislators to enact a natural gas severance tax. The agreement was not met due to concerns from Republican leaders that the tax will drive industry to other states. However Winters believes this concern is unwarranted since the resource is too valuable for them to ignore.

“To think that the severance tax will make the gas boom go away is, I think, completely ridiculous,” Winters said.

Dr. Shelby Hockenberry was one of the faculty members in attendance who were concerned with the long-term consequences of a non-renewable energy source.

“You don’t want to base your economy on a finite resource,” Hockenberry said, citing the economic downturn in many cities across Pennsylvania when the coal and steel industry collapsed in the 1970s.

However, Hockenberry said that Pennsylvania needs to look towards investing in the future through alternative energies. Bethlehem, Pa. is one of the cities that has invested in other income-producing areas in order to ease the economic hardship when the steel industry virtually disappeared.

“We’re seeing some of these towns coming back through green industries and education,” Hockenberry said.

Winters urged people to contact their legislators so that communities and the environment are protected.

“It’s up to people like you to combine what you know with your voice to make a difference,” Winters said.

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