DV Journal

When Bucks County filed a lawsuit in March attempting to blame international energy companies for the alleged impacts of climate change on local communities, it was pursuing a controversial legal strategy that is likely to be challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court.

But now lawyers for these energy companies are asking the Common Pleas Court to throw out the Democrat-backed effort for failing to meet local standards, such as compliance with the Sunshine Act.

Across the nation, at least eight states and more than two dozen local governments– all governed by Democrats– have filed similar lawsuits. (In Bucks County, Republican minority Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo originally backed the lawsuit, but later reversed his position and no longer supports it.)

In the most prominent case, the City of Honolulu is suing many of the same large energy firms, including Exxon and Chevron, on a similar basis. The Supreme Court has indicated it is interested in taking up the issue.

But lawyers for those energy companies aren’t waiting to find out. They claim that in Bucks County, commissioners needed to advertise and vote at a public meeting on suing the oil companies “as mandated by the second-class county code.” Because they failed to do so, the attorneys argue, the case should be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning the county could not file it again.

“The authority to enact such resolutions or ordinances is held only by a majority vote of a quorum of the commissioners at a properly noticed meeting compliant with the open meeting requirements of the County Code [and the Sunshine Act],” the brief said.

The brief, filed Aug. 5, also cited other reasons Judge Robert J. Mellon should dismiss the case, including the fact that the federal Clean Air Act would preempt the county’s authority.

The county filed its action in Common Pleas Court, not federal court, an action taken by other local jurisdictions. Critics claim it’s a strategy to avoid federal rulings that would have a national impact on the lawsuits and instead force the energy companies to spend time and money fighting in state and local courts.

“Addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production,” said Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, counsel for Chevron Corporation. “This lawsuit is baseless, just like the identical claims dismissed by the Second Circuit in New York City and state court judges in Delaware and Maryland.”

“A Baltimore city judge recently held that ‘global pollution-based complaints were never intended by Congress to be handled by individual states.’ In addition, there is no record of Bucks County’s lawsuit being publicly approved, and consequently, the case cannot move forward,” he added.

Also, the brief notes the county is “seeking damages under Pennsylvania law for increased emissions resulting from alleged failures to warn in, say, Texas, China, and Zimbabwe, even if there was no duty to warn in those jurisdictions. This, [Bucks County] cannot do. The global causal mechanism on which plaintiff’s claims depend triggers the exclusive and preemptive effect of federal law.”

In its lawsuit against BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute, Bucks County claims the companies knew their product was causing climate change and failed to warn the public. Bucks County argues those companies should be held liable for the local impacts of warmer temperatures.

Previously, a Delaware judge dismissed most portions of a similar lawsuit, finding that in-state Delaware emissions cannot have a material effect on the global nature of climate change.

Similarly, the oil companies’ brief argues that “every federal court to consider this question has held that state law cannot be used to obtain relief for the alleged consequences of global climate change.”

Also, “fossil fuels support the safety, health, security, and wellbeing of our nation–and that of billions of people worldwide. The plaintiff is asking the court to ignore the central importance of fossil fuels in the world economy and, instead, to impose liability and damages on a select group of energy companies under Pennsylvania law because of their [and] many other’s global production, promotion, and distribution of those lawful products and their end-use emissions. Neither federal nor Pennsylvania law support such a suit,” the brief said.

James T. O’Malley, a spokesman for Bucks County, said county officials would not comment since “this is pending litigation.”

A Jan. 9 hearing is scheduled.

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For the first time since George W. Bush was in the White House, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats in Bucks County. Pennsylvania Republicans say it’s just one part of a push to increase GOP registrations in the Keystone State before November’s election.

As of Monday, Bucks County had 264 more Republican voters than Democrats. The last Republican presidential candidate to win this Philly suburb was George H.W. Bush in 1988.

“That’s major,” said Pat Poprik, chair of the Bucks County Republican Committee. Republicans lost their registered vote advantage when Barack Obama was swept into the White House in 2008.

“It’s a long time getting it back,” Poprik said.

As recently as February, Poprik said, Democrats held a 2,400 lead in the county. But she saw movement toward the GOP and the county party made registration a priority.

“A lot of people said, ‘It’s doable,’” she said. Various outside organizations came to help Bucks Republicans register voters. Voters first registered Republican at the pace of 100 a week, then 150 a week.

Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said the Bucks County flip is “a warning for Democrats as they have become more reliant on suburban Philadelphia for statewide success. While having more registered Republicans in the county boosts the prospect for Trump in the state, it will be interesting to see how these improved numbers translate into gains across Republican candidates.”

Activist Scott Presler and his Early Vote Action have been leading the charge to register new Republican voters in Bucks and statewide in Pennsylvania. He’s been working in the trenches to register Bucks County voters for five years.

“It’s done — this major Philadelphia suburban county, which voted for Hillary & Biden, is now red. This is huge, monumental, monstrous, & earth-shattering news. We did it!” Presler posted to X.

Poprik also gives credit to the Biden-Harris administration.

“The voters in Bucks County are fed up, not just with Joe Biden, but with Democrat policies,” Poprik said. “People see what’s happening when they go to the grocery store or get gas.”

Noting that she saw a local gas station Tuesday selling regular for $3.89 a gallon, she added: “All the resources we’re not using. Pennsylvania is a big fracking state.”

Presler has emerged as the pied piper of GOP voter registration. “Since 2016, people are saying Republicans are losing the suburban mom vote. We’re seeing suburban moms come back to the Republican Party,” he told DVJournal,

“One theme I hear from them, they say to me, ‘I can’t afford anything.’ They say, ‘Scott, my kids are eating me out of house and home.’ And ‘We can’t afford to take family vacations. We don’t have the money to spend we had four years ago.’”

And it’s not just parents.

“Two years ago, Pennsylvania Democrats had an advantage of 95,000 more registered Democrats aged 18 to 24. Now it’s down to 66,000, basically meaning 18- to 24-year-olds are trending to the right.”

And since Oct. 7, more Jewish residents of Bucks County are switching to the GOP after seeing how the Biden administration has treated Israel, he said.

“Four weeks ago, we flipped Doylestown Township red,” said Ed Sheppard, chair of communications for the Doylestown Republicans. “Yesterday, Bucks County flipped red.”

“Flipping Bucks County was a team effort spearheaded and inspired by renowned national activist Scott Pesler. No one group can claim sole credit for this flip. Numerous groups, elected committee people and candidates across the county all registered people sick of the Biden/Harris agenda, supported by Bob Casey.”

Republican strategist Christopher Nicholas gave credit to “grassroots Republican activists and leaders in Bucks County whose hard work has helped turn the county back red.

“As someone who grew up in Bucks County and cut my teeth there and local politics, it’s good news and it’s important. Now GOP candidates there start from a higher level, and that’s good news for us and bad news for our Democratic friends.”

While this is good news for the GOP, Borick said there is a lot of work for both parties to do before November, particularly with the Democratic presidential ticket still in flux.

“It’s clear that the change [from Biden to Harris] has helped increase enthusiasm among Democrats who were quite downtrodden about the state of the race. Its impact on areas like fundraising is obvious at this point, but just how much Harris will move the polls in Pennsylvania and beyond remains to be seen.

“In all likelihood, the shifts will not be dramatic given the entrenched polarization at this moment. But even modest movement can be incredibly impactful in a state like Pennsylvania where presidential races have been so tight.”

Poprik points to one more bit of good news for her party: Research shows voters who just registered or who switched their registration are more likely to vote.

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(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)

The nonprofit trying to persuade local governments to sue “Big Oil” producers for damages allegedly caused by climate change has been making steady advances to Chester and Delaware counties, according to an email provided to Broad + Liberty.

The revelation comes just two months after the Bucks County Board of Commissioners announced it would sue major oil producers like BP, Chevron, Exxon, and others, arguing that the companies knew for decades that their products would cause climate change yet took no action. Several days after the announcement, the only Republican on the three-person board, Gene DiGirolamo, withdrew his support for the suit.

Indeed, it appears as if the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) was eager to use its success with Bucks County as a springboard.

Bucks County became the first local government in the commonwealth to take up the kind of suit that first began to sprout up about a decade ago. For example, in 2016, San Francisco and some other California municipalities sued longtime oil producers. Bucks County is being represented by the law firm DiCello Levitt on a contingency basis, meaning the county does not pay the lawyers unless the lawyers win the case.

In an email sent March 18, 2024, a senior political associate for CCI emailed Delaware County Councilmember Christine Reuther, and cc’d Bucks Commissioner Bob Harvie, both Democrats.

“My name is David Zeballos and I’m with the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit that helps elected officials and their communities hold oil and gas corporations accountable for the massive costs of climate change. I’ve met with a number of folks who have told me about the southeast PA regional call that you are now leading! That includes Council Member Elaine Schaefer, Commissioner Bob Harvie, Commissioner Josh Maxwell, and Commissioner Marian Moskowitz, who all expressed support about the work CCI does,” Zeballos wrote.

“Do you have any availability for a 30 min Zoom meeting to talk about our work in Pennsylvania and areas for collaboration?” Zeballos wrote later in the email.

The Center for Climate Integrity is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that says its mission is to “educate communities and elected officials about the role of polluters in causing climate change and the need to hold polluters accountable for their actions.”

A spokesperson for Chester County said no action is imminent, but noted that could change.

“Chester County is not considering a similar lawsuit at this time,” spokesperson Michelle Bjork said. “However, we will continue to monitor any developments in Bucks County’s case and will reevaluate as needed.”

“Chester County’s commitment to protecting the environment and our residents is demonstrated by our efforts to preserve more than 30 percent of the County as permanently protected open space and we will continue to explore all avenues to safeguard our community,” Bjork said.

Requests for comment to Delaware and Bucks counties were not returned. A request for comment to CCI was also not returned.

Delaware County already has something of an established relationship with CCI. County Council Chair Monica Taylor (D) is listed as a member of CCI’s “leaders network” and recently participated in the press roll out of a major CCI study.

In November, Taylor rattled her rhetorical sword about the need to punish oil producers in a Politico article.

“I agree that it’s not fair for this burden of addressing climate change to fall only on our residents,” Taylor said. “Polluters should and must pay.”

Yet the politics of oil are very different between Bucks and Delaware counties. In Delaware, thousands of people are employed in the industry at places like the Marcus Hook LNG terminal.

Counties do receive annual payouts from Pennsylvania’s “Act 13” of 2012, commonly known as the “impact fee” imposed on “unconventional” gas wells and distributed to counties and municipalities to help them maintain the environment, or to offset the wear on infrastructure from oil and gas drilling.

For example, for the five years from 2019 to 2023, Bucks County received $2.76 million from the impact fee, even though there are no active wells in the county. Delaware County took in $2.45 million over the same period, according to a state website devoted to Act 13 revenues and disbursements.

The impact fee delivered $179 million across all governments in the commonwealth in 2023.

In Western Pennsylvania, CCI gave a presentation in April on “climate accountability” to an environmental subcommittee of the Allegheny County Council. At the time, a council member said it would be premature to assume the county would sue oil producers.

Some of the initial lawsuits against Big Oil have already failed. In 2019, a New York judge ruled in Exxon’s favor, but as is often the case, the message of the ruling was nuanced, with Justice Barry Ostrager of the New York State Supreme Court writing, “this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case.”

Other cases remain in progress, and, “[t]he number of climate-related cases against Exxon continues to grow,” the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

“In February, the city of Chicago sued Exxon and other major oil companies alleging they deceived Chicagoans about climate change. In March, Bucks County, Penn., filed a similar suit. The Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental group the Rockefeller charities helped create, swayed officials in both places to bring the suits.”

IRS filings show CCI is predominantly funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, the philanthropic endeavor established by the legendary New York family whose business pursuits in the earliest parts of the 20th century produced Standard Oil, the petroleum monopoly whose most prominent corporate successor is Exxon.

The Journal also reported that the Rockefeller Family Fund “influenced President Biden’s decision in January to pause approval of new liquefied natural gas exports,” — a decision that touched off bipartisan condemnations in Pennsylvania, the nation’s largest LNG exporter.

“While the immediate impacts on Pennsylvania remain to be seen, we have concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry,” Democratic U.S. Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman said in a joint statement. “If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision.”

Numerous other politicians, including many Republicans, and associations also heavily criticized the Biden LNG “pause” — something that could easily become an issue in the presidential election this year if circumstances continue to make Pennsylvania a crucial battleground state.

The email cited in this story was obtained via the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law by the nonprofit organization Government Accountability and Oversight. A database search of nonprofit tax filings did not reveal any significant grant donations to GAO in order to be able to characterize its funding.

Last month, the three Bucks County commissioners entered the national debate over climate policy by filing a lawsuit against the world’s major oil companies, blaming them for local damages allegedly caused by global warming. It’s part of a coordinated strategy by green activists hoping to use local courts to either damage the fossil fuel industry or force a massive payout similar to the tobacco industry settlement in 1998.

On Wednesday, Republican Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo backed out.

“Madame Chair, I have considered this for the past seven or eight days,” said DiGirolamo. “And at this point, I would like to withdraw my support for the lawsuit.”

There was some scattered applause from the audience.

Bucks County is far from alone. Similar lawsuits have been filed by state and local jurisdictions from Hawaii to California to Delaware. In Wilmington, a Superior Court judge set aside key elements of the lawsuit attempting to declare global energy companies a “public nuisance” in The First State.

Critics of the aggressive litigation strategy say it’s intentionally abusing the legal system by forcing a federal issue into state courts. In response, 20 state attorneys general this week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

During public comment, Bucks County resident Ed Mackhouse said the oil companies are being sued because they have money and not because they bear responsibility for “the climate hoax.”

“Where is this coming from that Bucks County is going to sue oil companies?” asked Andy Warren, a former Bucks County commissioner. “We’ve got to have more substantial things about Bucks County than to start a crusade about oil companies.”

Warminster resident Beth Curcio said, “I’m not surprised you would look for the press by suing the oil companies. The very companies that make your clothes, shoes, furniture, heat your homes, run all your transportation — I could go on forever. Over the years it’s become cleaner and safer to transport through pipelines.”

DiGiralomo could not immediately be reached for comment.

In response to complaints about the use of county resources, Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia said the lawyers handling the lawsuit against the oil companies are working on a contingency basis so the county will not have to pay legal fees unless it wins damages.

Vice Chair Robert Harvie Jr. pushed back on the criticisms from the public, as well asDiGirolamo’s announcement.

“A comment was made, ‘Why does this matter?’

“It matters because… in the next 16 years, Pennsylvania municipalities are expected to spend $16.5 billion to deal with issues regarding climate change, extreme heat, extreme precipitation, rising sea levels, or, in our case, river levels. That includes $1.2 billion in air conditioning in schools, including $6 million in air conditioning added to schools just in Bensalem Township.”

Harvie said towns that border the Delaware River could spend $172 million on flood control.

“We’ve already seen a 5 to 10 percent increase in rainfall over the past several years,” he said. “It’s really about a negligence issue.”

However, Dr. Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and a leading academic on climate change policy says impacts from climate disaster have been overstated. He notes the number of hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. has declined over the past century and the relative cost of flood damage in America is one-tenth what it was in the early 1900s.

“The cost of climate-related disasters has dropped five-fold since 1980,” Lomborg adds.

The Bucks County commissioners announced Monday they are suing some of the world’s largest global oil producers over the local effects of climate change in Bensalem and Yardley.

The lawsuit, filed in Common Pleas Court against BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute, claims they knew their product was causing climate change and failed to warn the public. Bucks County argues that those companies should be held liable for the local impacts of warmer temperatures.

“In recent years, we have experienced unprecedented weather events here in Bucks County that have repeatedly put residents and first responders in harm’s way, damaged public and private property, and placed undue strain on our infrastructure,” said Commissioner Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D). “We’re already seeing the human and financial tolls of climate change beginning to mount, and if the oil companies’ own data is to be believed, the trend will continue.”

Bucks County is “following the model established in suits (it) brought against PFAS manufacturers, social media giants, and opioid companies. This complaint seeks to shift the financial burden of the climate crisis from the taxpayers of Bucks County to the companies responsible for creating the crisis,” according to a statement from the county.

At least eight states and more than two dozen local governments have filed similar lawsuits.

Critics, like David N. Taylor, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, have accused the county of political posturing that is unconnected to reality.

“Suing oil and gas companies for providing an essential product that not only enables modern life but drives significant economic growth in our state is nonsensical and will result in higher costs for manufacturers, businesses, and consumers alike,” Taylor said.

“It’s unfortunate Bucks County took the bait of a copy-and-paste-lawsuit pushed by out-of-state activists and billionaire hypocrites over the well-being of Pennsylvanians.”

But commissioners from both parties supported the lawsuit.

“These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us,” said Republican Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo. “The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed.”

“This suit is our tool to recoup costs and fund public works projects like bolstering or replacing bridges, retrofitting county-owned buildings, and commencing stormwater management projects, all of which will put us in the best possible position to weather what is certain to come,” Ellis-Marseglia added.

Can a company whose product is being used in every nation in the world be held responsible for alleged local consequences from impacts on global climate?

A Delaware judge took a dim view of that legal strategy and tossed out significant parts of a similar case. On Jan. 9, Delaware Superior Court Judge Mary Miller Johnston ruled the Clean Air Act preempts Delaware’s core allegations for public nuisance, trespass, and failure to warn since it sought damages for activity resulting from out-of-state or global greenhouse gas emissions. Delaware can only proceed with claims proving alleged injuries were the cause of emissions from sources within the state. Prevailing with that claim isn’t possible in this case. The judge found that in-state Delaware emissions cannot have a material effect on the global nature of climate change.

Energy companies argue addressing climate change and public policy is a job for the federal government, not local governments.

“Addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production,” said Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, counsel for Chevron Corporation.

Others in the energy sector accused Bucks County of hypocrisy.

“Bucks County and its elected county officials have relied on oil and natural gas for decades to meet their transportation needs and to power their once-mighty steel industrial base,” said Curt Schroder, executive director of Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform. “Yet the commissioners have filed climate change litigation for a situation they helped cause. When can we expect all county-owned vehicles to be electric or all the county buildings to be powered by renewables?

“One would expect such actions to follow immediately upon the heels of the action taken by the county leaders. Pennsylvanians already pay a hefty ‘tort tax’ that goes right into the pockets of out-of-state trial lawyers, and this lawsuit will only raise costs even higher for hard-working people across the state – all without advancing real climate solutions. Lawsuits targeting the lawful production of energy are an abuse of our state’s civil justice system and an end-run around the democratic process,” Schroder added.

And both supporters and opponents of the legislation agree that a Bucks County lawsuit isn’t going to solve the problem of climate change.

“These local lawsuits do nothing to address our real energy challenges. In fact, lawsuits like this actually undercut Pennsylvania’s role in addressing climate change. Electric sector-related emissions have plummeted in recent years as more natural gas has come online to meet our growing power demands,” said Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance.

“That has led to cleaner air across our commonwealth. The United States is reducing greenhouse gas emissions faster than any other country in the world, an achievement tied to our emergence as the world’s top natural gas producer.

“The timing of this lawsuit has little to do with environmental concerns and everything to do with concerns over the coming election,” Knaus said.

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Bucks County officials promise that their 911 system is still operational despite what they call a dayslong “cybersecurity incident.”

“If you call us for an emergency response, our dispatchers will get you the help you need,” said Bucks County Emergency Services Director Audrey Kenny. She assured area citizens that there wouldn’t be any delay if someone called 911 and that the county’s emergency services radios and phones still work.

A cyberattack hit the county’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system on Sunday. The county has not said if hackers got into any other systems.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) describes CAD as technology that helps 911 operators and dispatchers “prioritize and record incident calls, identify the status and location of responders in the field, and effectively dispatch responder personnel.” It also stores information, including the length of phone calls and the time they were made.

CAD systems can connect to various databases across the U.S., including the National Crime Information Center and the National Incident-Based Reporter System. It can also take data from license plate readers and jail systems.

DHS has praised CAD for helping police and firefighters prioritize more critical 911 calls. They cited work done by first responders during natural disasters.

However, CAD systems remain vulnerable to cyberattacks. Hackers attacked The City of Dallas’s CAD system last year as part of a ransomware attack. It took two days to restore the program. The city speculated that hackers got into their systems through a service account and by “exploiting legitimate third-party remote management utilities.”

In 2018, Baltimore City’s CAD server was taken down by hackers for 17 hours. A city spokesperson blamed “an internal change to the firewall by a technician who was troubleshooting an unrelated communications issue” with the CAD system.

It’s unknown when Bucks County’s CAD system will return online. Kenny said, “The county has partnered with state and federal agencies and has retained best-in-class incident response professionals to assist in our ongoing investigation.”

In the interim, 911 dispatchers will use phones and radios to communicate with police, firefighters, and EMS.

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Two weeks into Pennsylvania’s new automatic voter registration demanded by Democrats, the winner is the state’s GOP.

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) announced the change in state law, which moves from an “opt-in” system, meaning people getting driver’s licenses or photo identification will be automatically registered to vote (AVR) unless they opt-out. The new system began on Sept. 26. Critics said the governor could not make that change himself; rather, it should go through the state legislature. Lawsuits have been threatened, but so far not filed.

According to state records, from Sept. 25 to Oct. 10, Republicans added 4,730 registered voters; Democrats gained 1,774; and 3,681 registered as independents unaffiliated with any party or a third party. The state is still 45 percent Democrat and 39.9 percent Republican, with 14.9 percent of voters registered with other parties and independents.

The news for Democrats was better in the Delaware Valley, perhaps not surprising in the state’s blue corner.

In Bucks County, Republicans gained 284 new voters, while Democrats garnered only six, and other parties gained 141 voters. In Bucks County, Republicans comprise 41 percent of voters, Democrats are 42 percent, and others are 16.7 percent.

In Chester County, Republicans picked up 104 new voters, Democrats added 115, and others added 72 voters. In Chester County, Republicans make up 39.87 percent of voters; Democrats are 41.94 percent; and others are 18.9 percent.

In Delaware County, Republican voters increased by 93; Democrats increased by 207; and others by 148. There, Democrats comprise 50 percent of the voters, Republicans comprise 35.9 percent, and others are 14 percent.

In Montgomery County, Republicans gained 269 new voters, Democrats gained 189 voters, and 221 registered for other parties. Other parties are 16 percent of the electorate in Montgomery County, while Republicans are 33.7 percent and Democrats are 50 percent.

Pat Poprik, chair of the Bucks County GOP, said she was not surprised that her county is trending Republican and that Republicans are gaining voters statewide.

“People are so upset with the cost of everything,” said Poprik. “Everything is through the roof when I go to the grocery store, the gas station. People are smart.

“And the border, the fentanyl coming in. This (country) is a ship heading in the wrong direction. Democrats are not standing up to their president,” she said.

Locally, people are concerned about crime increasing coming into Bucks County from Philadelphia. The two Republicans running for commissioner, Gene DiGirolamo and Pamela Van Blunk, were endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and are running on a crime-fighting platform, she said.

People “want our county to be safe,” she said. “People are not happy with what they’re seeing.”

Activist Scott Presler has been staging voter registration drives in Pennsylvania. He defended the AVR policy last month on social media despite fears from others that the GOP would lose voters. Presler suggestedDemocrats “are becoming desperate” and that registered independents might switch to Republican for party primaries.

“I was the first to acknowledge this may backfire (on Democrats),” Presler told DVJournal. “So far, the first two full weeks of AVR have shown that most voters are registering Republican.”

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This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.

The multi-year FBI investigation in Falls Township is digging into whether the township’s administration contributed to or even actively fostered a culture in which unions — and one union in particular — were able to put pressure on local businesses to hire more unionized labor or, if not, face government harassment through permitting delays, according to multiple sources.

Sources who spoke to Broad + Liberty are well placed to have firsthand knowledge of matters related to both the township, as well as the investigation. All requested to speak anonymously out of concerns of retaliation.

Sources confirmed the union side of the investigation is mainly focused on the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Number 269, based across the river from the township in Trenton, New Jersey. Previous media reports have also indicated that the Local 269 was a focus the investigation.

Previous media reports have also indicated that a federal grand jury has been impaneled on the matter and has been taking testimony, but those reports have not specified the nature of the investigation. Those reports also established that Bucks County Board of Commissioners Chair Bob Harvie, the longtime former chair of Falls Township’s board of supervisors was summoned to testify before the grand jury, raising the specter about whether the ongoing criminal investigation could have an impact on the county’s hotly contested election for county commissioners.

For several years now, two of the township’s longest serving supervisors have been members of IBEW Local 269 — Jeff Dence and Jeff Boraski. But what has seldom, if ever, been reported is the towering influence the IBEW has had over the township through the last dozen years in terms of donations from its federal political action committee to those individuals.

That tally of campaign donations swells even larger if two other township supervisors are included: Bob Harvie and Jeff Rocco. Harvie served as the chairman of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors from 2008 to 2020, according to his online biography. Rocco served on the board from 2012 to 2021. Neither are IBEW members.

Since 2009, the IBEW’s federal PAC (which can donate to local candidates) has given $397,950 to the campaign accounts of those four individuals, according to Federal Election Commission records — a staggering sum for a township of approximately 34,000 persons of whom only 10,500 voted in the most recent general election, and which already has a natural Democratic bent.

The donation figure represents about four-and-a-half percent of all the political money donated by the same IBEW federal PAC to all other Pennsylvania candidates and committees over the same time period, according to a Broad + Liberty analysis of FEC records. Yet, in terms of population, Falls Township represents two-tenths of one percent of Pennsylvania.

The lion’s share of that political money — $214,000 — went to Dence. The rest was mainly split between $80,000 for Harvie and about $76,000 for Boraski.

(The same IBEW PAC has made a small number of donations to others who have served on the Falls Township Board. For example, the IBEW has also made one donation each to Erin Mullen and John Palmer, both of whom are currently serving on the township’s board of supervisors. Some of the donations included in the above tally also include donations made to Harvey while he was running for Bucks County commissioner in 2019 and after.)

The sources indicated the main question in the federal probe was a simple scheme: a business which might be expanding an existing building or starting new construction was approached by someone who urged the business owner to choose union labor. If the business owner refused, various permits needed to keep the project on schedule were held up by the township government.

Broad + Liberty’s sources pointed to one construction project in particular: a massive building project announced in 2015 by KVK Technologies, a specialty pharmaceutical company. In the spring of 2015, the township’s board of supervisors approved a new office and warehouse complex to be built on Cabot Blvd. A request for comment to KVT was not returned or was not successful.

The sources were not able to point to any individual for any specific act, with one exception. That exception is not being published in this story because it was only offered by a single source, and was not independently corroborated by other sources.

Although the investigation has been going on for years including the impaneling of a grand jury in Philadelphia, no indictments have yet been handed up. All persons named in this report are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.

The business manager for IBEW Local 269, Steve Aldrich, said the allegations are false.

When asked by phone for the union’s comment, Aldrich said: “Same thing we told the other paper over there in Bucks County, the same thing — the grand jury, there’s nothing. There never has been. We don’t do that s*** here. That’s not how we operate. That’s it. I don’t have any other comments than there’s nothing there and I can’t believe you’re still asking this from 2010. It’s like there’s got to be some other news that you can — to look for. There’s nothing here. I have no idea. You must be bored.”

The sources also indicated that the alleged wrongdoing was a driving factor in the yo-yo-like employment of the township’s former manager, Peter Gray.

Gray proffered his resignation in September 2019, but then rescinded it when the township offered him a retroactive pay raise, according to a report from LevittownNow.com. Four months later, Gray left the township for good and is currently the borough manager for New Hope.

The sources indicated that Gray kept a book or log of some sort that chronicled the alleged activity. That idea is key, as LevittownNow.com has reported a year ago that its own sources said “FBI special agents and prosecutors are in possession of a significant number of documents that went through former township manager Gray’s office.”

In September last year, Levittown Now reported that numerous individuals have testified before the grand jury investigating the matter, including Harvie and Gray.

The township is also dealing with two individuals suing it either over whistleblower claims or allegations that they were asked to perform illegal or unethical acts while in office and were then retaliated against when they objected.

“A fired Falls Township police officer claims in a new lawsuit that he has provided information to the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation involving the municipality’s government,” said a LevittownNow.com report from January.  “He also says he was wrongfully terminated by township officials because he is a whistleblower.”

In 2020, the township’s former code enforcement officer quit and later filed suit, alleging he had been asked by township officials to manipulate an inspection of a specific home. The allegations in the suit are contained to that incident, and seem unlikely to weigh on the FBI investigation.

The IBEW’s interest in Falls Township, as evidenced by its campaign donations, matches a time when the union seemed to be growing its influence in southeast Pennsylvania by leaps and bounds.

Through most of the second decade, the IBEW looked ascendant in the region, emblemized by John Dougherty, the business manager of the IBEW Local 98, based in Philadelphia. Dougherty, more commonly known by the nickname “Johnny Doc” was indisputably one of the most influential political power brokers in the region until he was indicted by the federal government in 2019.

The apex of Dougherty’s influence was on vivid display in 2015, when he marshaled more than $1.5 million in direct and in-kind donations to his brother’s successful run for the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court — an election that helped swing the balance of power at the top court and continues to reverberate politically to this day.

Dougherty also single-handedly funded the election of Bobby Henon, an IBEW member who served for ten years as a member of Philadelphia’s City Council. Henon was charged along with Dougherty with corruption charges in 2019. He was convicted and is currently serving a three-and-a-half years term in federal prison.

Falls Township has an established Democratic political bent, based on election results dating back more than a decade.

For example, in the hotly contested 2010 U.S. Senate election between Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey, Sestak easily carried Falls Township 6,000 to 4,200. Statewide, Toomey eked out a 51-49 win in a Republican wave year.

Four of the five current members of the elected board of supervisors are Democrats.

None of the current members of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors, including Dence and Boraski, responded to a request for comment. Former members of the board, including Commissioner Harvie and Rocco, did not respond to a request for comment. For this outreach, Broad + Liberty used Falls Township government email addresses, personal emails gleaned from campaign finance reports, as well as text messages sent to phone numbers also taken from campaign finance reports.

A request for comment was also not returned from the IBEW national office in Washington D.C. which controls the PAC mentioned in this story, or from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sources with further information on any aspect of this story — governance in Falls Township, knowledge of union activities in the township, etc — are encouraged to reach out to this reporter at [email protected], confidentiality assured.

Five people died from flash floods in Upper Makefield Township in Bucks County on Saturday evening. On Monday, searchers continued looking for a missing baby and a 2-year-old child.

“With these five deaths, this is a mass casualty incident the likes of which we have not seen before,” the Upper Makefield Police posted on Facebook. “This has been unbelievably devastating to all the families involved, all of our first responders, and to our community as a whole. We are all grieving over the loss of life we have seen. However, our commitment to finding the two children who are still missing is unwavering as we will do all that we can to bring them home to their loved ones.”

On Monday, first responders used teams on foot and in boats, divers in the Delaware River, as well as drones and sonar technology trying to locate the children.

Police said their mother is among the five victims, and the family was visiting the area from Charleston, S.C.  Officials said the father, a 4-year-old brother, and a grandmother survived.

“I got to thank many of the first responders who have been working around the clock to rescue those caught in a flash flood on Washington Crossing Road in Upper Makefield last night,” State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) said in a statement.

“I joined Upper Makefield Township Supervisor Ben Weldon, Bucks County Commissioners Bob Harvie and Diane Marseglia, state Rep. Perry Warren, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Sen. Bob Casey on a tour of the damage to Washington Crossing and Taylorsville roads. Our prayers are for the family, friends, and neighbors of the five who lost their lives and the two young children still missing.

I will continue to work with local, state, and federal officials to restore the roadways.”

Officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro (center), look at flash flood damage.

Bucks County is no stranger to severe flooding. According to the Neshaminy Valley Watershed Association, historical records cite a terrible flood on July 17, 1865, caused “several deaths,” flooded homes, and washed away thousands of dollars of crops.

According to the Delaware River Basin Commission, another severe flood struck on Oct. 11, 1903, washing away nine wooden bridges across the Delaware River.

Hurricane Diane caused a monumental flood in 1955 on Aug. 19 and 20 of that year. That flood destroyed or damaged several bridges and left 1,000 people homeless.

Other significant Bucks County floods happened in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd hit the area, dumping 10 inches of rain on Doylestown. The Tohickon Creek crested at 11.84 feet in Pipersville, and the Neshaminy Creek in Langhorne crested at 21.91 feet. Floyd killed eight people in southeastern Pennsylvania and flooded 1,000 homes.

In June 2001, Hurricane Allison dumped the most rain on Bucks County since Floyd. The Neshaminy Creek crested at 17 feet, twice its flood stage. There were widespread power outages as well.

In 2021, Hurricane Ida brought three tornadoes and flooding to Bucks County. One person died.

While most severe floods resulted from tropical storms or hurricanes that came up the East Coast, the latest flooding was due to moisture in the atmosphere, said AccuWeather meteorologist Mary Gilbert.

“Too much rain came down too fast,” she explained. She said Saturday evening’s storm resulted in a 500-to-1,000-year flood. “There is a very low chance of it happening again. It was a very abnormal event. It’s something not likely to happen frequently.”

But if people hear news reports of flash flooding, they need to be cautious and avoid those areas.

“It can happen fast when it does happen,” said Gilbert. “It’s incredibly dangerous.”

Upper Makefield Township was declared a disaster emergency. Residents with property damage were asked to call the township, and people were warned not to go around barricades to try to drive on closed roads.

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