DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty this weekreleased a statement of priorities for DEP that she said was the Governor’s vision for the agency called, “Greater Environmental and Public Health Protection As a Driver of Economic Growth: The Rendell Administration’s Agenda for DEP.” Some key excerpts from the statement…

Environmental protection is too often seen as a tradeoff with economic growth rather than as an engine of efficiency, productivity, and enhanced competitiveness. To the extent this win/lose mentality persists, society will fail to take the necessary steps to protect the environment and will compromise quality of life and enhanced prosperity.

DEP will, in all of our programs, encourage or require:

· Energy efficiency/energy conservation

· Use of renewable energy/ indigenous advanced energy resources

· Energy recovery where potential energy resources may be wasted or not utilized

· Carbon sequestration

· Innovation in energy production and use to reduce dependency on foreign energy sources, foster business development, address climate change, and encourage job growth

Watershed Protection: DEP will, in all of our programs, encourage or require:

· Protection and restoration of streams, rivers, lakes, and aquifers on a watershed basis

· Water conservation

· Protection of aquatic life and biodiversity in streams, lakes and rivers

· Groundwater protection, recharge and restoration

· Encourage and engage watershed groups in this effort

Community Revitalization and Development: DEP will, in all of our programs:

· Encourage or require community redevelopment in areas where development has already occurred by, among other things, encouraging the use or replacement of existing infrastructure as preferable to new infrastructure

· Eliminate incentives for sprawl development

· Promote preservation of agricultural lands

· Reward land use planning and implementation that is based on regional or multi-municipal planning and implementation

· Promote increased human quality of life in existing communities

· Promote and restore communities, including low-income and minority communities as well as mining communities

· Integrate the objectives and tasks of the interagency land use and transportation action plan

Mine Safety: Build a world class mine safety program that will keep pace with technology changes and Strengthen the role of mine safety in permitting and enforcement actions

Fiscal Responsibility: DEP will, in all of our programs:

· Ensure that programs are based on fees that recover their administrative costs, including permitting, inspections, and enforcement

· Allocate personnel and financial resources on a statewide and/or regional basis to the most significant environmental and public health problems, needs, or opportunities

· Develop and begin implementing performance-based planning and budgeting

· Reduce unnecessary costs to the regulated community

7/9/2004