Governor visits county
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell made a visit to Fayette County Friday, meeting at the Holiday Inn with township supervisors to discuss some of the strides taken by local government and to discuss alternative sources of energy. “I truly believe we are in an energy crisis in the U.S.,” Rendell said. “And this was before Hurricane Katrina.”
Rendell said Hurricane Rita, which was expected to hit the Houston, Texas, area today could only make the crisis worse.
“It is time for us to cut our energy usage and find alternative sources of energy,” Rendell said.
According to Rendell, Brazil, a country rich in sugar fields in South America, was dependent on foreign sources of energy for about 85 percent of their energy needs in the 1970s. Today, after working to produce an ethanol-like substance out of sugar, the country only imports about 20 percent of the energy it needs.
“During the same period, the United States went from about 28 percent dependent on foreign oil in the 1970s to more than 60 percent dependent today.
Rendell discussed using things like soy as alternative fuel sources and corn, as well as using refuse coal to fire electricity producing plants across the state, something Rendell said he is committed to continuing for economic development in the state as well as environmental improvement.
“These plants are economically viable,” Rendell said. “We need to continue to look at every plausible way to do this…I want Pennsylvania to be number one in the production of alternative energy.”
Rendell said in the meantime, he is encouraging area residents to do their part through conserving energy and other simple steps to increase gas mileage like maintaining correct air pressure in tires.
Rendell said since he assumed office, the state has invested $37 million in 54 development projects across the county, including $5 million for the revitalization project in downtown Uniontown, $7.5 million in water and sewage projects, $10 million in housing and $4 million in roadwork.
Rendell briefly discussed the hometown streets program and encouraged area lawmakers to get involved in the $250 million statewide project to help improve sidewalks, roadways and infrastructure in heavy traffic and school areas of small towns.
He said Uniontown, North Union Township, South Union Township, Hopwood and Connellsville have already taken advantage of the program.
Rendell briefly discussed the legislative pay raise authorized by the state, but dismissed claims that the raise is too much and said the “media” has blown the story out of proportion.
“We have received a lot of letters on the pay raise, but far fewer than we received on library funding cuts or Medicaid,” Rendell said. “I question whether the media isn’t just trying to stoke this up to create controversy.”
Rendell also talked about the Act 72 proposal, which was rejected by school districts by a 3-1 margin across the state earlier this year and said he is considering legislation to make the proposal mandatory.
The act would allow property tax relief for homeowners in the state through the use of gaming funds from the recent slot machine legislation.
“We are going to have a special session on Wednesday to discuss making it mandatory,” Rendell said. “It is the only way to get property tax relief across the board.”