Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from Pennsylvania’s newspapers:

Pennsylvania’s new fireworks law is a bad joke

The Easton Express Times

July 14

Pennsylvania’s liberalized fireworks law, passed in 2017, underwent its second big test over the recent 4th of July weekend.

It failed.

Again.

Of course, if you’re someone who measures Independence Day in degrees of personal firepower, this holiday was anything but a dud.

Overall, however, Pennsylvania’s legalization of “consumer grade” fireworks has led to a statewide celebration in which people routinely break the law. The noise pollution isn’t the worst of it. Several towns reported fires on buildings that had to be extinguished. In Luzerne County, an 11-year-year boy died in a house fire ignited by fireworks, according to The Citizens’ Voice.

And pet owners were reminded again there is no way to shield dogs and cats from the explosions they perceive more acutely than we do - except maybe putting them in the car and leaving town.

Under the two-year-old law, passed by the Legislature to help plug a budget deficit, Pennsylvania residents are permitted to buy and set off fireworks that had been prohibited for decades. That includes Roman candles, bottle rockets, and firecrackers with no more than 50 milligrams of explosive material.

The same law says setting off fireworks within 150 feet of an occupied dwelling is illegal, which makes most neighborhoods in cities and suburbs off limits.

That prohibition is useless. Ask any police officer.

Ask anyone who had to clean up a neighbor’s mess, or worry about someone else’s skyrockets raining down on the roof.

Those kinds of incidents were evident all around the Lehigh Valley over the recent Thursday-Sunday holiday weekend.

Other than people exceeding speed limits, you have to think this is the most widely flouted law on the books, especially around the relevant holidays.

Police are hamstrung, except in the most egregious cases. To issue a citation, they usually have to witness someone lighting a fuse. The maximum penalty is a $100 fine.

Some towns have ordinances setting a nightly cutoff of 9 or 10 p.m. Again, hard to enforce.

Fireworks have their time and place in holiday celebrations. The best is in the hands of professionals who oversee municipal displays, but responsible individual use is OK - with common-sense limits on projectiles and firepower.

An unintended consequence of the new law - based on anecdotal evidence, admittedly, because statistics are nearly nonexistent - is the increasing popularity of more explosive fireworks banned for consumer use by federal and state laws - cherry bombs, quarter sticks, M-80s, M-100s, and aerial displays.

New Jersey still holds to a more conservative approach, similar to Pennsylvania’s previous law: Sparklers, novelties and things that don’t go airborne are OK to fire up.

After two years of witnessing the effects of the Pennsylvania law, many municipal officials, firefighters and a group of state legislators are calling for change - either repealing the law or amending it. The Pennsylvania Career Fire Chiefs Association wants it buried.

A bill introduced by state Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks, a volunteer fire chief, would give municipalities more power to enact and enforce restrictions. Fireworks use would be limited to 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., except for New Year’s Eve, the 4th of July, and days around the 4th of July, which would have a 1 a.m. deadline. Penalties for violations would be increased.

That’s it?

Simply tweaking a law that is universally disregarded isn’t going to do much. And please note, the appeal for a little more peace and quiet is going up against a 12 percent tax on fireworks sales that brings in millions to the state treasury. (Poof.)

The idea here isn’t to throw cold water on the celebration of our independence, but to reconsider a law that invites people to break it with impunity, stoking an increase in personal injuries and destruction of property. And occasionally, death. Who would vote for a bill like that?

Online: https://bit.ly/32NKYmG

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Let weather serve as call to act

The Erie Times-News

July 23Bikers sought relief in the shade beneath the grandstands at the sun-scorched Roar on the Shore hub on Friday. In Waterford, historical re-enactor Bonnie Massing stripped down to her underwear - such as it was, an ankle-length petticoat and blouse - to cool off as temperatures hit 90 degrees Saturday at Waterford Heritage Days.

Those who did not cope wound up at UPMC Hamot literally sick with heat.

Like most of the U.S., the region sweltered on recent days. At Friday’s peak in Erie, the mercury registered 91 degrees, but the heat index, which combines heat and muggy humidity, reached 103 degrees.

Neither day broke a record. But that is not really the point. The point is, dog days like these - close, oppressive and dangerous - are happening more often and scientists say they will only get worse if we fail to act.

The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report Tuesday, “Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days.” It offers temperature projections for each U.S. county depending on the extent to which we limit man-made heat-trapping emissions that are causing our planet to boil.

With no action, it says by mid-century Erie County would experience an average of 24 days per year with heat index temperatures of 90 degrees, four days above 100 degrees and one day above 105 degrees. By the century’s end, those numbers would jump to 58, 19 and nine days, respectively.

A Climate Central report released in April examined 242 cities and found average temperatures have risen in nearly 98 percent of them since 1970. Erie was listed at the eighth fastest-warming, with temperatures increasing 4.06 degrees between 1970 and 2018.

It is neither just the heat nor the humidity that should alarm, but all that goes with the warming planet. That includes the extreme storms that have battered the region. While Erie sizzled Friday and Saturday, points just to our south experienced both intense heat and damaging deluges of the sort that in 2018 took a $126 million toll on roads and other infrastructure in Pennsylvania.

The heat, the storms, the flooding, the changes to the environment, including harmful algae blooms fueled by polluted storm runoff and warming Lake Erie waters, don’t just affect health. They threaten key industries here from farming to tourism.

The Concerned Scientists report says we have a narrow window to change course and perhaps retain something closer to the summer days we know and love. Pennsylvania’s Climate Action Plan is one of many resources pointing the way forward - solar and wind power, electric vehicles, public transit and other strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This is not something we can or should simply sweat out.

Online: https://bit.ly/2OiPVAD

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Freezing tuition is a good first step in fixing what’s wrong with higher ed

PennLive.com

July 23

Penn State, Temple, Harrisburg University and Pennsylvania’s System of Higher Education (PASSHE) all have announced they are freezing tuition for undergraduate Pennsylvania residents for the 2019-20 academic year. This is a step in the right direction and one that other colleges in our area would do well to consider.

Student debt is one of the most pressing issues of our day. It is a direct threat to the futures of bright young people eager to start their lives and change the world. Except unlike previous generations of college grads, they are saddled with thousands of dollars of debt even before they have their first jobs.

For too long colleges in our region and throughout the country have thought they could continue business as usual - raising tuition, room and board and even fees on the backs of young people convinced they won’t have a life without a college degree.

But for many young graduates, the life they envisioned didn’t include worries over how to pay off student loans before they had a paycheck. While college grads can generally expect to make more than people without a college education, they also are seeing their income eroded by the loans they have to pay back - with interest.

It is not uncommon for students to leave college with upwards of $50,000 in loans, and then take out more for graduate school. What will be the repercussions of having this kind of debt as they start entry-level jobs at $30,000 or $40,000 a year? And what happens when these students marry, bringing double debt into their union?

No wonder millennials have high expectations of the kind of work they will accept after college. And no wonder many are rethinking the benefits of the traditional four, five or six years on a college campus.

All of this is bringing a long-feared reckoning for many colleges and universities in our region, especially the smaller ones with the high price tags.

Harvard management expert Clayton Christensen has predicted the country will see a growing number of these colleges close in the next decade as enrollment continues to decline and college leaders are unable to meet the challenges.

And the challenges are immense. To meet them, colleges that want to survive are reorganizing, cutting majors and programs and reducing tuition.

HACC has announced it is reorganizing and eliminating positions to deal with a $9 million debt brought on by lower enrollment.

Elizabethtown College, facing similar enrollment problems, is discontinuing two majors and three minors, meaning staff and faculty positions will be cut. All of this despite its “tuition reset” last year.

“Our reality is much like many higher education institutions across the U.S. We recognize that demographics have shifted, especially in the northeastern part of the country,” said President Carl Strikwerda in announcing the program cuts this month.

Lebanon Valley College also is cutting $1.6 million to academic, meaning both programs and staff reductions.

And in addition to the tuition freeze, the Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education is undergoing what it calls a “System Redesign,” including a top-to-bottom review of its 14 universities. The system has suffered enrollment declines for almost a decade and now has 100,000 students on all of its campuses.

But Penn State, Temple and Harrisburg Universities and PASSHE get it. The leaders of these institutions have acknowledged one key fact - their responsibility to Pennsylvania families.

“As part of our land-grant partnership with the Commonwealth, it is imperative that we do all that we can to keep a Penn State education within financial reach for Pennsylvania students and their families,” Penn State president Eric Barron said.

Truer words have never been spoken. But let’s be honest, the high cost of tuition is threatening higher ed.

The system is broken, and unless more college trustees and presidents face the facts and fix it, they will face the inevitable - fewer students and the ultimate closure of their hallowed halls.

Disclosure: Pennlive Opinion Page Editor Joyce M. Davis is a member of the Board of Trustees of Elizabethtown College.

Online: https://bit.ly/30WBzHH

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Standing against the camps

The York Dispatch

July 23

Even in deep red York County, it isn’t hard to find people who will stand against the treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration

On July 12, roughly 70 protesters stood outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the York County Prison to condemn the conditions at detention camps along the southern border of the United States - especially the conditions faced by children.

The demonstration, organized by regional pro-immigrant advocacy group CASA, was part of a nationwide protest called Lights for Liberty.

Stories from the border camps continue to horrify people of conscience everywhere, no matter what their political affiliations, although some groups do seem to have fewer qualms about treating children, toddlers and even babies as criminals.

Among the continual tidal wave of news from this administration, the stories of men and women being held in cells without enough room to sit down, much less sleep, can get lost as ICE and Customs and Border Patrol argue in court that they are not required to give children in their custody soap and toothbrushes, that giving a child a Mylar blanket and a patch of concrete is enough, that it’s acceptable for older children to care for younger children who are sick.

Lights for Liberty brought protesters out at more than 800 facilities across the country and around the world, including the York County Prison, where immigrants are being detained, as well as the Berks Family Residential Center, a site in Berks County where immigrant families are being held.

In York, immigrants and supporters holding signs reading “Never again,” ’’Don’t look away” and “Keep families together” spoke about their journeys.

“Even though we live in constant fear, we still work our hardest, providing so much for our country,” said Arlette Morales, a Mexican immigrant who came to the U.S. at 2 years old. “This country deserves us. We deserve to be here. … There is still hope. We will not forget about you. We will keep fighting for you until these chains are broken and you are free.”

More than 50,000 people are being held by ICE and more than 20,000 in facilities run by CBP, according to The Atlantic. More than 11,000 children are under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Every citizen of the United States should be concerned about the conditions these fellow human beings are being subjected to daily. Many of them came to the U.S. to flee violence in their native countries, others to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Many are seeking asylum.

Some are even U.S. citizens: Rep. Nannette Barragán, D-Calif., found a woman from Ecuador and her 13-year-old daughter, who was born in New York and has a U.S. passport, being held at a CBP facility in McAllen, Texas. Soon after the congresswoman spoke out about their custody, they were freed.

York County’s ICE facility, which holds migrants who have been picked up for overstaying visas, returning to the country after being deported or who have been charged with crimes, is negotiating a new contract with ICE that is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Officials have declined to comment on facility-related matters until then.

An ICE official told The York Dispatch last month - while there were just 13 open beds at the facility - that if it reaches max capacity, “ICE has facilities nationwide that can accommodate detainees.”

We’ve heard about the conditions ICE believes are acceptable, and we stand with the protesters at the York County Prison who say that no, those are not conditions any person should be forced to withstand while in the custody of the U.S. government.

We are glad to see that York County can count these people of conscience among our neighbors.

Online: https://bit.ly/2OcGLp9

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Coal isn’t coming back

The Scranton Times-Tribune

July 24

Northeast Pennsylvania knows too well the economic pain inherent in the decline of a dominant industry. Its recovery from the loss of anthracite coal mining is a work in progress nearly 70 years after the industry’s last gasp here.

So empathy is in order for communities across Appalachia and the West that face the new, much broader decline in coal.

Due to economics rather than regulation, as demonstrated in a new analysis by the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, coal is losing in the marketplace.

Yet, politicians who profess fealty to the markets believe that they can revive coal by eviscerating environmental regulations.

If regulation were the driver, the Yale analysis points out, coal prices should be higher to reflect compliance costs. Yet prices for coal and coal-generated electricity have been flat for more than a decade. The irreversible problem coal faces is that prices for multiple renewable sources and, especially, cleaner natural gas, have plummeted over the same period and are projected to continue that trajectory.

Since 2007, the amount of coal used to produce power in the United States has declined by 39%.

All of the fuels, renewables and natural gas, have the advantage of being less-polluting than coal, regarding acquisition of the fuel itself and its use to produce electricity. The Trump administration claims that technology can make coal just as clean, but that technology is unproven. And even if it works, its implementation would increase the cost of coal, putting it at an even greater disadvantage against its competitors.

According to the study, the cost of a megawatt hour of electricity from onshore wind is $58; it’s $71 for utility-scale solar and $92 for coal. For “carbon-capture” coal, it is $151.

Clearly, the government’s focus should not be on diminishing environmental protections covering coal production and power generation, but on helping communities caught in the market-driven inevitability of coal’s demise.

Online: https://bit.ly/2Oi5qsK