PPL is reporting plenty of power outages due to very strong winds Sunday into this morning. Across PPL's coverage area, more than 12,600 customers were in the dark as of 9:30. More than 2100 of them live in Bucks and Lehigh counties. Berks County has more than 400 PPL customers in the dark, while PPL customers in Monroe, Northampton and Schuylkill counties report 200-to-600 power outages. PPL is reporting fewer than 50 outages in Carbon County. First Energy is showing more than 23,000 outages in its service area, with Berks County the hardest hit, with more than 11,000 First Energy customers without service. Northampton County shows more than 1900 power failures. Bucks county reports more than 730 outages, while Monroe County is showing nearly 200 and only a handful in Lehigh County as of 9:30.
Our weather forecast is dominated by four letter words. Today's word is wind and later this week it'll be snow. "The next storm will skirt the area to our south and east Wednesday night into Thursday. I don't think it's a big deal, but I think you could see some snow in that time frame," says Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg. His early call is for another one-to-two inch snowfall. The most immediate issue is strong winds that could continue to cause downed limbs and power outages.
For the second time in three months, Bethlehem firefighters were called to the same building in the 800 block of East Fourth Street for a garage fire. The most recent fire broke out just before 8 o'clock Sunday morning. The previous fire there happened last December.
Most county, state, and federal offices are closed today in observance of Presidents' Day. Courts are not in session and U.S. post offices are not operating. Most bank branches are closed as well but some locations inside supermarkets may be open.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman says neighboring states are beating Pennsylvania when it comes to the energy industry. "We're seeing power plant closures, but we're not seeing new re-investment, but we are seeing it in Ohio and West Virginia," Pittman says. He says Gov. Josh Shapiro's proposal to tax carbon emissions would put Pennsylvania even further behind. Shapiro says his proposal would cut red tape and increase grants to entice energy producers to open up shop and also incentivize clean energy.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday is backing a bill in Congress meant to fight the fentanyl crisis. The A-G recently voiced his support for the HALT Fentanyl Act, which would put fentanyl-related drugs in the same Class One scheduling as fentanyl under the Controlled Substance Act. Sunday said drug traffickers are using the classification difference as a "loophole," which contributes to the widespread distribution of fentanyl. The HALT Fentanyl Act has already passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and is awaiting approval in the Senate.
State lawmakers are considering a bill that would block warehouses from being located near historic sites in New Jersey. There are some 200 historical sites in New Jersey, including Lucy the Elephant in Margate and the Statue of Liberty. The legislation was introduced in the state Assembly and the Senate last month. It would prohibit warehouse construction within a thousand feet of historic districts and sites listed on state and national historic registers.