HARRISBURG, Pa. (WENY) - Tomorrow, state lawmakers will reconvene in Harrisburg for the new legislative session. Among them is State Senator Gene Yaw (R-23), who is looking forward to representing central Pennsylvania and the northern tier in the upper chamber of the state legislature.  

Yaw has served Pennsylvania's 23rd Senatorial District since 2008, which covers Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga and Union Counties. Some of his proudest accomplishments during last session include the over $200 million Clean Streams Fund, which also provided dollars for the Agriculture Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP).  

"Helping farmers and landowners to do stream bank repair, riparian buffers, grasses, keep animals out of the streams, fencing, all those types of things,” said Yaw. 

Yaw serves as Chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, where he is a strong advocate for Pennsylvania energy production, like natural gas.  

“I'm tired of apologizing for the riches that Pennsylvania has. We have the most diverse energy portfolio, I think, of any state in the country. We have everything,” said Yaw.  

Yaw has been an outspoken critic of things like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state coalition to reduce carbon emissions.  

“Like RGGI and some other things, we're tinkering with the environmental side without worrying about, and not paying attention to what the economics are in a lot of these things. We need to care about the environment, but in order to do that, we need a real viable economy,” said Yaw. “When the big storm came, what, ten days ago, with the high winds and everything, there wasn't a windmill in Pennsylvania that was operating. They were all shut down,” he added. 

Senate Bill 275 was one of Yaw’s bills in the 2021-2022. According to Yaw, it sought energy choice for consumers. It passed the House and Senate, but was vetoed by Governor Wolf. 

“It was an energy choice bill. I just don't think that municipalities should dictate to customers what energy that they should have. For example, they should not designate that it's gas, they should not be able to designate that it's electricity,” said Yaw. “I’m going to reintroduce that bill, maybe make some changes,” Yaw added. 

Building enough support for legislation to be signed into law can be a tall task, but a task that Yaw is looking forward to nonetheless in the next session. 

“It's 129 people to agree to get anything done in Harrisburg, and that's a majority of the Senate, majority of the House and the governor. Getting those 129 people together sometimes is a challenge, but I think it's a challenge worth working on,” said Yaw. 

He says he’s optimistic about the next session and working with a new administration. 

"I’m looking forward to the new session and working with the new administration, I really think that we can accomplish a lot,” said Yaw.