EPA’s hearings in Pittsburgh Thursday and Friday on a proposed rule to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants were quiet but forceful inside, but led to loud confrontations outside the building.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has proposed amendments that would restore the tax credits for wind energy and biodiesel production. Both measures would amend the Bring Jobs Home Act, which seeks to discourage outsourcing jobs by ending certain tax credits. The wind and biodiesel incentives expired last year.

Governor Tom Corbett finally signed the fiscal year 2014-15 state budget, but not without sending a message to legislators by vetoing $72.2 million in funding earmarked for the Senate and House which included $65 million in their general appropriations and $7.2 million in legislatively designated spending.

With Corbett’s approval of the budget and fiscal code bills, the state Department of Environmental Protection will need to reevaluate its yet-to-be-finalized two-year overhaul of drilling regulations.

The EPA is proposing to prohibit the use of certain chemicals that significantly contribute to climate change where safer, more climate-friendly alternatives exist. This is the agency’s second action aimed at reducing emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a class of potent greenhouse gases, under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

Three days into the new fiscal year, the governor has yet to decide if he will sign the budget that passed June 30. The General Assembly has still not finalized the Fiscal Code. The State Senate has to decide if it will accept the changes the House made in that bill which reportedly were not part of the agreement between GOP leaders. Liquor reform amazingly is still being discussed, and pension reform appears to have been punted into football season despite pleas by the Governor to “get ‘er done.”

The House of Representatives this week passed House Bill 2354 by a vote of 144-59. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Pam Snyder (D-Greene) and Rep. Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion) requires the General Assembly to approve the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s plan to implement federal Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas regulations for power plants.

The State Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee last Friday held the first of two public hearings to discuss the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to cut carbon pollution from nationwide power plants by 30 percent in 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

For months now, state leaders have known that the 2014-2015 budget would be a difficult challenge. Yet through the first quarter of the year, most observers still considered an “on time” budget a realistic prospect. Now, with the state facing a confirmed $1.4 billion budget gap, Gov. Tom Corbett and legislative leaders have begun to acknowledge that the state’s June 30 deadline is an almost hopeless target. “Get it done right rather than quickly” is the new mantra. But this year, right may have many definitions.

In response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s June 2 draft rules to reduce carbon emissions from point sources, Green County Representative Pam Snyder (D) intends to author a bill aimed at reducing the burden placed on coal-burning power plants.