Pa. Senate set sights on DEP spending, permits, RGGI in budget hearing

Mar. 22—HARRISBURG — Speeding up the processing of environmental permits along with Pennsylvania's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative were central focus points during the state Senate's budget hearing Wednesday for the Department of Environmental Protection.

Through Gov. Josh Shapiro's budget plan, DEP requests $199.5 million from the state's general fund, a 9% increase. The department's total spending request across all funds is a combined $2.3 billion.

Nearly half, or $1.1 billion, is federal dollars with substantial portions planned for abandoned mine reclamation as well as capping an estimated 3,000 orphaned oil and gas wells across the commonwealth.

Improving the permit process seems a bipartisan desire. Legislative Republicans have been particularly vocal about losing out on economic opportunities because of permitting troubles. Shapiro stressed the point on the campaign trail and since he took over as governor. He opened the Pennsylvania Office of Transformation and Opportunity in January with expediting permits being an imperative task.

Sen. Scott Martin, R-Berks/Lancaster, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the lengthy and burdensome process risked a major agricultural investment in his district and forced a mushroom processor in another to relocate across the Maryland border to build a new facility.

"We can't afford to keep losing opportunities in this state," Martin said during Wednesday's committee hearing.

Richard Negrin, DEP's acting secretary, said the budget requests include a proposal for 47 new hires. Some, not all, would focus solely on permitting including members of a rapid response team.

In the current fiscal year, he said the department acted on 27,000 permit applications and authorizations. That's with a short staff, one that accumulated approximately 18,000 hours of overtime in 2022 — the equivalent of nearly 11 full-time workers.

Negrin, who's been in his role about two months, said the permit process must be modified to ensure it's not just efficient but practical and user-friendly for applicants, noting even professional engineers at times find themselves baffled by the complexities of the process.

"I am content but not satisfied," Negrin said. "It took many years for us to get to this level. We're not going to fix it overnight and we're not going to fix it in one budget."

State Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, welcomed Negrin's internal critiques. She told of a hotelier who obtained permits and built a hotel out of state faster than the experience they had with permitting alone in Pennsylvania.

Phillips-Hill reintroduced a bill that, if adopted, would work to enhance public transparency for all agency permits, not just environmental, and institute a dashboard she likened to package-delivery tracking to see what step a particular application is at in the approval process.

Negrin told state Sen. Patrick Stefano, R-Bedford/Fayette/Somerset/Westmoreland, that all regional director vacancies are now filled and that with a work-share agreement, heavy workloads in one district could shift to others to help ease the burden and avoid backlogs. He also told Stefano he was open to hiring a third-party contractor but he first wanted the opportunity to address the workload internally, particularly through a rapid response team.

"When we see we have problem permits, those taking a little longer, they're able to dive in," Negrin said. "I call them my Navy Seals of permitting. It's those folks who are the best of the best."

State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Bradford/Lycoming/Sullivan/Tioga/Union, stressed the need for uniformity across districts, saying a contractor was approved to use certain equipment at a fracking operation while another was denied permission in another district for the very same equipment.

RGGI initiative

Yaw opened the hearing by pressing Negrin and fellow DEP administrators on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative better known by its acronym, RGGI — a cap-and-trade program intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants. Power generators pay for allowances of each ton of carbon dioxide emitted.

Pennsylvania became the 12th state to join RGGI when the Wolf administration finalized participation last April against fervent Republican opposition. It's currently the subject of litigation and the commonwealth's participation is under court injunction.

Shapiro's budget estimates Pennsylvania could realize $663 million from the program. Yaw expressed skepticism that generators wouldn't pass along their cap-and-trade costs to utility customers.

"We're going to get more money than we pay into it?" Yaw asked.

"Yes," replied Jessica Shirley, DEP's acting executive deputy secretary.

"Money that will be paid in will be passed onto customers?" he asked.

"They could," she said.

"Yeah, they could," Yaw said. "Or, they could eat it."

Negrin said of the budget request for staffing, 17 new employees are proposed to work specifically on RGGI. Shirley said they would ensure the emissions program is working as intended, that credits are purchased properly and provide revenue oversight.