Redistricting could help environment

The Trump administration is proposing to cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31 percent. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, “nearly every single program that EPA runs and supports in the state would be eliminated or deeply cut.” Slashing funding puts our drinking water and Clean Air Programs at risk and reduces the amount of Superfund sites to be cleaned up.

Pat Toomey, our senator in D.C., is “… no friend of the environment, voting against the environment at every opportunity; voted consistently to defund clean energy, pollute our air and destroy our national lands,” according to the Sierra Club. He is part of the problem.

Fair DistrictsPA.com tells us that “current redistricting processes give party leaders tremendous influence over the outcomes of elections. They can draw lines that make it virtually impossible to vote an incumbent legislator out of office.” Senate Bill 22 and House Bill 722 would change the state constitution to put an independent citizens’ commission in charge of redistricting. Both bills are stuck in committee and need to be moved along. Contact your senator and House Representative and urge them to support these bills. This is one way to change the status quo.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Redistricting could help environment."