Philadelphia Public Record

Vol. I No. 142

Keeping You Posted With The Politics Of Philadelphia

January 18, 2011

Philadelphia

Daily Record

GOP Arrives In The ’Burg

PHILA. REPUBLICAN elite started showing up at Harrisburg Hilton & Towers yesterday, preparing for today’s inauguration festivities for incoming Gov. Tom Corbett and Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley. Public Record’s Contributing Editor Bonnie Squires met Judge Jim Fitzgerald and his wife Carol Fitzgerald, president of Penna. Society.

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Environmentalists Plan Huge – And Pointed – Welcome For Corbett On Marcellus Drilling Green activists from across the state are pouring into Harrisburg today for what they hope will be a major demonstration as Gov. Tom Corbett is inaugurated. Their focus is gas drilling in the Marcellus shale.

Outgoing Gov. Ed Rendell has imposed a moratorium on Marcellus shale development until waterquality and other environmental concerns are settled. Corbett, in contrast, promoted rapid development of the state’s huge shale reserves throughout his campaign.

Leading the coalition of activists is the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, which released the following statement today.

“The Marcellus drilling boom has swept across Pennsylvania before our government became aware of it. Permits were issued and drilling expedited before protections were in place to determine how much water could be withdrawn from our streams, how to safely drill for gas, how to dispose of wastewater and dispose of the solid waste. The state was not prepared for the onslaught.

“As a result, thousands of permits were issued before the problems you read about in the newspapers were revealed. These problems include a gas well explosion in Clearfield Co., which led DEP to impose requirements on operation of blowout preventers; the contamination of drinking-water wells in THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

Dimock and in other counties due to poor casing and cementing of the wells; the accident which killed two workers across the border in West Virginia; the spills that ruined a stream in Greene Co.; the spills from overflowing lagoons; the lack of wastewater infrastructure to treat Marcellus wastewater; the Pennsylvania State Police finding that 40% of trucks serving the Marcellus industry had safety violations; and the destruction of rural roads by heavy trucks.

“If we can’t protect our communities and natural resources, then we should not drill for natural gas.

“We need strong regulation and government oversight that will make drilling safe. ”We ask you to: 1. Put a hold on drilling until State government enacts laws and regulations to make Marcellus gas-well drilling safe and environmentally sound.

2. Reform the Oil & Gas Act to require mandatory inspections, require disclosure of fracking chemicals, to extend the presumption of pollution, to require adequate bonds, and to protect municipal zoning and police powers.

3. Extend the hold on additional gas leases on public lands in Pennsylvania until a full cumulative analysis can be conducted on the impact of existing leasing of public lands.

4. Enact a severance tax comparable to other States and provide for funding for communities impacted by gas drilling and for environmental conservation.

5. Block efforts to compel unwilling landowners into a “forced pooling” arrangement.

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“Unless you act, Pennsylvania will suffer reckless degradation.”

White House Launches Drives To Defend Health Reform Led from the top, backers of the new Affordable Care Act have mounted a full-court press to build public opposition to Republican Congressional vows to repeal it.

Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new analysis showing, without the Affordable Care Act, up to 5.5 million non-elderly Pennsylvania residents who have some type of preexisting health condition, like heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis or cancer, would be at risk of losing health insurance when they need it most, or be denied coverage altogether. Across the country, up to 129 million Americans would be at risk.

Under the full range of policies in the ACA to be enacted by 2014, Americans living with preexisting conditions are free from discrimination and can get the health coverage they need, and families are free from the worry of having their insurance cancelled or capped when a family member gets sick, or going broke because of the medical costs of an accident or disease. Repealing the law would once again leave millions of Americans worrying about whether coverage will be there when they need it.

“The Affordable Care Act is stopping insurance companies from discriminating against Americans with pre-existing conditions and is 18 JANUARY, 2011

giving us all more freedom and control over our health care decisions,” said Sebelius. “The new law is already helping to free Americans from the fear an insurer will drop, limit or cap their coverage when they need it most. And Americans living with pre-existing conditions are being freed from discrimination in order to get the health coverage they need.”

The Secretary stated the analysis found anywhere from 50 to 129 million (19-50%) of Americans under age 65 have some type of preexisting condition. Examples of what may be considered a preexisting condition include heart disease, cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and arthritis. Older Americans between ages 55 and 64 are at particular risk; 48-86% of people in that age bracket live with a preexisting condition.

Of people under age 65 in perfectly good health today, 15-30% are likely to develop a preexisting condition over the next eight years.

Up to one in five Americans under age 65 with a pre-existing condition – 25 million individuals – is uninsured.

Prior to the Affordable Care Act, in the vast majority of states, insurance companies in the individual market could deny coverage, charge higher premiums, and/or limit benefits based on pre-existing conditions. Surveys have found 36% of Americans who tried to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company in the individual insurance market encountered challenges purchasing health insurance for these reasons.

A number of protections are alTHE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

ready in place thanks to the ACA. Insurers can no longer limit lifetime coverage to a fixed dollar amount or take away coverage because of a mistake on an application. Young adults have the option of staying on their parents’ coverage up to the age of 26 if they lack access to job-based insurance of their own, and insurers cannot deny coverage to children because of a preexisting condition.

Many uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions have already enrolled in the temporary high-risk pool program called the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, which provides private insurance to those locked out of the insurance market because of a preexisting condition. The PCIP program – which has already saved people’s lives by covering services like chemotherapy – serves as a bridge until 2014, when insurance companies can no longer deny or limit coverage or charge higher premiums because of a preexisting condition.

Nutter To Speak In Washington For CDBG Program In the midst of a struggling national economy, more than 220 of the nation’s Mayors will convene for the 79th Winter Meeting of The US Conference of Mayors tomorrow at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Mayor Michael Nutter, along with several of his peers, will address a press conference at 2 p.m. supporting the Community Development Block Grant program. |

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Over the three-day session, Mayors will hear from Cabinet officials culminating in a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. Much of the discussion during the meeting, including a mayors and CEO panel on Thursday, will center on joblessness in US cities and the need for job creation. Mayors are pushing the Administration and the new Congress to work together on strategies to help unemployed people in America’s cities, where 85% of the people in this country live.

Highlighting the meeting will be a presentation of the Distinguished Public Service Award to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for his 22 years of service as Mayor.

N.W. Greens Get Antsy Over Sewage In Monoshone Creek

Update since June 2009. This publication is very useful because it shows the results of PWD’s tests for fecal coliform (sewage) flow into the Monoshone at outfall 5.

Monoshone Update #4 (July 2010) announced PWD is “now working on 14 blocks in the Outfall 5 drainage area that are blocks with private sewers.” Monoshone Update #5 (December 2010) then listed the 14 blocks which had been tested. The good news was that “to date, only one property ... was found to have a defective (cross) connection, which has since been corrected.”

However, the job has not been completed, allege the Greens.

Sewage continues to pour from Outfall 5. The group is asking concerned neighbors to write or email Water Commissioner Bernard Brunwasser to find out what he has planned for the Monoshone in 2011.

The members of Northwest Greens are pressing the Philadelphia Water Dept. to show if it has a plan to stop the flow of sewage into the Monoshone, a recreational creek which runs alongside Lincoln Drive, through historical Rittenhouse Town and into Wissahickon Creek.

Northwest Greens is a nonpartisan neighborhood organization with 480 members, most of whom live in Germantown, Mount Airy or Chestnut Hill. This group has been petitioning our Water Dept. for years to follow the law and cut off the flow of sewage into the Monoshone.

PWD has been publishing a quarterly Monoshone Water Quality 4|

THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

Jan. 20Republican City Committee celebrates inauguration of Tom Corbett & Jim Cawley at R2L, 50 S. 16th St., 37th fl., 5:307:30 p.m. $500/person, $750/couple. RSVP by Jan. 14.

Business attire. For info (215) 561-0650.

Jan. 21State Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown hosts Breakfast Mtg. with seniors at Sarah Allen Sr. Ho., 4035 Parrish St., 9 a.m.-12 m.

Jan. 24Phila. Tea Party Patriots NW meeting at Kendrick Rec Ctr., 5800 block Ridge Ave. by Roxborough Mem. Hosp. at 7 p.m.

Speakers are Commissioner candidate Al Schmidt and 6th Dist. Council candidate Sandy Stewart. For info Mike Lodise (2115) 487-0118 or Pat Haraburda (215) 482-7991, or teapartynw@comcast.net.

Jan. 24Rally to reelect Mayor Michael Nutter at Metropolitan Carpenters Union, 1812 Spring Garden St., 2nd fl.

Jan. 24— The Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots Northwest host 7 p.m. meeting at Kendrick Recreation Center, On Ridge Avenue beetween Rector and Roxborough avenue.

18 JANUARY, 2011