PRINTER'S NO. 3351
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
219
Session of
2022
INTRODUCED BY METCALFE, ARMANINI, BERNSTINE, COOK, GREGORY,
JAMES, MUSTELLO, RAPP AND WARNER, JULY 1, 2022
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, JULY 1, 2022
A RESOLUTION
Impeaching Patrick McDonnell, Secretary of the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection, for misbehavior in
office.
BE IT RESOLVED, That Patrick McDonnell, Secretary of the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, be
impeached for misbehavior in office, and that the following
Article of Impeachment be exhibited to the Senate:
ARTICLE I
Secretary McDonnell, as head of the Department of
Environmental Protection, has presided over a Department that
has committed a number of flagrant violations of the
Constitution of Pennsylvania and State law. A number of these
violations occurred during the development of the regulation
regarding the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI.
First, the core of the regulation involves a tax, which can only
be implemented under the Constitution by the General Assembly,
not by the Executive branch of Pennsylvania's government.
Next, The act of January 8, 1960 (1959 P.L.2119, No.787),
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known as the Air Pollution Control Act, requires that the
Department, when developing a regulation such as the RGGI
regulation, hold hearings on the regulation in impacted
communities, which Secretary McDonnell's Department failed to
do. Further, Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act was violated during an
Environmental Quality Board meeting chaired by Secretary
McDonnell, which was held in a room that was closed to the
public.
Secretary McDonnell's Department has also blatantly flouted
the law related to a number of other subjects. Section 1920-A(j)
of the act of April 9, 1929 (P.L.177, No.175), known as The
Administrative Code of 1929, requires the Department to
promulgate regulations related to manganese. This was a clear
statutory directive which Secretary McDonnell's Department
ignored for a number of years and is finally attempting to
resolve with a regulatory process that violates the act of June
25, 1982 (P.L.633, No.181), known as the Regulatory Review Act.
The Secretary's Department has also treated section 5 of the act
of January 24, 1966 (1965 P.L.1535, No.537), known as the
Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act, with similar disdain, as the
Department has refused to implement the law's clear directive to
allow for the use of alternative on-lot septic systems. Very
recently, the Secretary's Department has attempted to put
forward a regulation related to VOC emissions which ignores the
clear directives of the act of June 23, 2016 (P.L.375, No.52),
known as the Pennsylvania Grade Crude Development Act, requiring
that separate regulations be promulgated for the conventional
oil and gas industry. The repeated refusal by the Secretary and
his Department to follow the Constitution of Pennsylvania and
Pennsylvania's statutes is unequivocally misbehavior in office.
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Wherefore, Secretary Patrick McDonnell is guilty of an
impeachable offense warranting removal from office and
disqualification to hold any office of trust or profit under
this Commonwealth.
The House of Representatives hereby reserves to itself the
right and ability to exhibit at any time hereafter further
Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Patrick McDonnell, to
reply to any answers that Secretary Patrick McDonnell may make
to any Articles of Impeachment which are exhibited and to offer
proof at trial in the Senate in support of each and every
Article of Impeachment which shall be exhibited by them.
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