Letters: The time is now for clean energy bill; Gun safety measures go ignored by PA GOP

The time is now for clean energy bill

On June 16, I hopped on Zoom to join hundreds of Pennsylvanians for PennEnvironment’s Climate Action Lobby Day. Throughout the numerous meetings I was privileged to join, I was inspired by the passion and assertiveness of other constituents calling for our legislators to take bigger actions, to really crack down on the issue of climate change within our districts.

Every day it becomes more clear that if we’re going to minimize the impacts of climate change, we must take action now to eliminate our global warming pollution by 2050. Luckily, there have been numerous studies that show that we already have the technology to achieve this goal.

A bipartisan group of legislators who want to tackle climate change have introduced a proposal to do just this: get Pennsylvania to eliminate its global warming pollution by transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2050. This bill is HB1425 in the state House and SB630 in the state Senate. Thank you Representative Scott Conklin for listening to your constituents and agreeing to sign-on in support of this bill.

Gun safety measures go ignored by PA GOP

July 4th weekend saw an explosion of gun violence across the country.

From coast to coast, more than 250 people were killed by gun violence in one weekend alone — and, tragically, we’re on pace to exceed the 20,000 Americans killed by gun violence in 2020.

Let that sink in for a minute. Do you think that’s acceptable? If you had the power to do something — anything — to end this madness, would you?

Well, people like Jake Corman and Kerry Benninghoff apparently think more than 20,000 Americans killed by gun violence in one year is just fine. And, even though they are in positions to do something about it, they never have and probably never will.

In Harrisburg, Democrats recently introduced more than a dozen gun safety measures, yet not one bill will even get hearings because of Republican control of the House and the Senate. That’s the same House and Senate that Kerry Benninghoff and Jake Corman lead.

We may not be able to end all gun violence deaths or mass shootings, but anyone truly concerned about human life would try. Jake Corman and Kerry Benninghoff show their leadership style by doing absolutely nothing about this ongoing tragedy.

Doing nothing about serious issues is what they do best.

Representatives stay silent on vaccinations

I find it interesting that the elected officials who represent all or parts of Centre County in Washington and Harrisburg and who wanted to nullify your vote last November have remained silent about the rise of a variant of COVID-19 among the unvaccinated. You would think that our elected leaders would be urging them to get vaccinated.

Instead, people who should know better are silent.

Two of our representatives, state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff and U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, have particular backgrounds that would inform their leadership on the matter.

Benninghoff was at one time the coroner for Centre County. Who better to know the implications of ignoring medical advice?

Thompson boasts of his broad background in the health field and says on his congressional website that “he has learned firsthand the importance of access to quality healthcare and has become a strong advocate for increased access, affordability, quality of care, and patient choice.”

Silence is deadly.