June 3: PA and carbon emissions cap | Delaware River toll discounts | 22nd and Market memorial overkill | Bill Green on SRC’s budget refusal | No scrap for Whitman

Good morning Streeters. Here’s what’s catching our attention:

New EPA rules for reducing carbon emissions announced yesterday are geared at curbing climate change and improving public health. How will Pennsylvania meet the Obama administration’s new carbon pollution rules? The new EPA rules cap the amount of carbon each state can produce, aimed at cutting carbon emissions by 30%. The Inquirer’s Sandy Bauers reports that Pennsylvania will be able to reach its carbon pollution cap – 15 years from now – by emphasizing renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Should frequent drivers on Delaware River toll bridges get a discount? The Inquirer reports that a proposal from NJ State Senate President Stephen Sweeney is asking the Delaware River Port Authority to give regular commuters a 20% toll discount. Perhaps the more fundamental problem is that half of DRPA’s spending goes toward paying down $1.6 billion in debt.

We hope the memorial park proposed at 22nd and Market is more a quality public space than a memorial to the deadly demolition-related collapse last June. But Philly Mag’s Liz Spikol thinks a 22nd and Market memorial is not an appropriate response. “I can’t help but feel that from a historical point of view — whether in terms of lives lost, destruction of property, or larger sociopolitical implications — the park is a disproportionate response to last year’s devastating event.”

The School Reform Commission declined to adopt a budget last month, a move in violation of City Charter. In an opinion piece SRC chairman Bill Green explains that passing a budget would have suggested that the tremendous cuts to an already crippled system would have seemed acceptable. They are not. “We cannot cut our way to great schools. Due to the cuts implemented this year, we are already seeing our best schools will quickly decline and our most struggling schools will fall ever further behind. To our great shame, our children know we are not meeting our collective obligation to them,” Green writes. City Council and Harrisburg need to step up and citizens need to force their hand.

Whitman Council doesn’t want a scrap shop to relocate to Weccacoe Avenue, saying it wants to promote development, Passyunk Post reports. The shop, formerly located near Target on Water Street, produced problematic scrap litter and attracted itinerant metal scrappers.

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