04/22/24 - 117 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/9bh4zbtr
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Proposal To Use Bioenergy Crops For Land Reclamation Passes House
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The House this week passed House Bill 608 (Brooks-R-Crawford) that would help promote private investment in bioenergy resources while assisting to reclaim mine lands in Pennsylvania.
“The potential created by this legislation will help spur economic development by helping private businesses mitigate their costs, and providing them additional resources to invest in jobs. This legislation is also a perfect fit to help address our energy security concerns. These crops can also be used as a biomass fuel creating another homegrown energy resource,” Rep. Brooks said.
“For the past three sessions, I have been working to advance this bill through the legislative process to encourage the use of various grasses such as switchgrass, camelina and canola to assist Pennsylvania with energy independence while also facilitating the repair of abandoned mine lands. Studies have been done in other states to prove that these fast-growing crops can flourish in all types of environments. The robust nature of these plants can help repair mine lands faster than traditional plants that are grown on previously mined lands,” said Rep. Brooks.
House Bill 608, which received overwhelming bipartisan support from the committee and on the House floor, would authorize the Department of Environmental Protection to encourage the planting of switchgrass or other fast-growing crops to revegetate lands affected by surface mining.
Under the legislation, if a mine operator uses one or more of these crops in reclamation, the bond can be fully released at the Stage II level instead of Stage III, provided other criteria are met. This means that the financial guarantee bonds will be available to be used on other reclamation sites increasing the rate on which mine lands are reclaimed.
The proposal, which is now with the Senate for consideration, would apply to all lands affected by surface mining activities, not just to re-mined lands.
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6/20/2011 |
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