• Rachel McDevitt
  
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  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.

  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.

  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.

  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania

One of the many signs protesting a proposed solar project in Mount Joy Township, Adams County is seen here in front of the Iron Horse Inn on Nov. 24, 2020. Owner Tom Newhart said the project could hurt the tourism industry in the area, just outside Gettysburg.

December 5, 2023 | 7:40 PM

A massive solar energy project that sparked a backlash in Adams County has lost a second court fight.

The Commonwealth Court marked its decision “precedential” when it upheld a lower court ruling that denied a key permit to the Brookview Solar project in Mount Joy Township, outside Gettysburg.

That means the decision could inform future cases in which communities fight proposed development.

The opinion focused mainly on local zoning laws.

Tom Newhart, who owns an inn and a farm next to where the company planned to build, said there’s a lesson for everyone in the ruling.

“One should look at one’s ordinance and work on it to get something that makes sense. Not to say you’re totally blocking out anything, but put some restrictions on there to protect the public,” Newhart said.

Newhart and his neighbors had been fighting the project since 2019.

Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania

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Tom Newhart stands outside his bed and breakfast, a historic Civil War-era building, in Mount Joy Township on Nov. 24, 2020.

NextEra Energy Resources planned to lease 1,000 acres in the township, spread over multiple parcels, for the 75 megawatt Brookview Solar project, with panels covering about 500 acres.

To build in certain areas along Baltimore Pike, it needed a conditional use permit.

Township officials held a series of public hearings on the permit application. The board of township supervisor’s official vote in June 2021 was split. By law, that meant the permit was denied.

NextEra appealed to the Adams County Court of Common Pleas, where it lost.

The court ruled the project plans did not meet the standards set by local zoning. It found several deficiencies in the application related to stormwater management, access roads, and maximum lot coverage.

The court also upheld local zoning that requires applicants prove their projects won’t cause harm.

“Brookview has failed to prove by credible evidence that the proposed use will not detract from the use and enjoyment of adjacent or nearby lots, substantially change the character of the neighborhood, or adversely affect property values,” Judge Michael George found in his decision.

NexEra then appealed to Commonwealth Court, claiming the lower court made several mistakes in its judgment.

The three-judge Commonwealth Court panel found those claims had no merit.

“We reject Brookview’s request that this Court remand the matter to the Board so that Brookview can amend its original conditional use application with a new site plan. It had that opportunity before the trial court and chose not to use it,” Senior Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt wrote in the opinion.

NextEra did not respond to whether it plans to appeal further.

Mount Joy Township has since passed a new ordinance that bans solar development on prime farmland, known as Class 1 and Class 2. It also increased the setback distance solar panels need to be placed from homes and set a bond amount for projects’ eventual cleanup.

Editor’s Picks

Every Pennsylvania Society has at least one squabble that becomes the pervasive gossip of the glitzy weekend gathering of the state’s politicians held every December in Manhattan.

This year’s conflict: State Sen. Nikil Saval being barred — momentarily — from entering the late-night soiree thrown by the law firm Duane Morris at The Rainbow Room, the Art Deco ballroom and lounge with sweeping midtown views from the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center.

Saval and Duane Morris agree on one point: The Democratic-socialist from Philadelphia was eventually admitted to the party thrown by the firm, which has high-profile Democratic and Republican partners.

Saval insists he was temporarily barred from the party and threatened with ejection from the building because he signed a letter with other politicians calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The firm counters that Saval received an invitation but failed to reserve his spot at the party, which was already at capacity in a building with strict security about guest lists.

Alan Kessler, a partner at the firm who’s active in national Democratic politics, told Clout he intervened when he heard Saval was being kept out.

Saval arrived at the party clearly upset and quickly recounted the dispute for Clout and others. Saval then repeatedly reached out to reporters and shared his story again with several people at the big Pennsylvania Society dinner Saturday night.

Kessler, who is Jewish, said he is not a fan of Saval’s position on a ceasefire. But he noted the firm does not spend serious time and money on the party to make enemies in Harrisburg.

“Whatever happened, whatever he went through, we did everything we could to get him upstairs,” Kessler said.

Saval looped in Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa of Pittsburgh and State Sen. Vincent Hughes of Philadelphia, who served as intermediaries with the firm about his concerns.

Clout hears the Senate Democratic Caucus is arranging a meeting with the firm’s leadership to hash things out with Saval, who won his seat in 2020 and is up for reelection next year.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.

The ranking of 680 hospitals nationwide is a guide for parents making one of the most important decisions of their lives — where their baby will be born. Each hospital participating in the U.S. News survey received a scorecard describing their performance on a checklist of items parents look for when choosing where to have their baby.

Jennifer Winston, a health data scientist for U.S. News, said the top hospitals in the survey are those with a “high performing” designation for care given to patients with uncomplicated pregnancies. These hospitals had Cesarean Section rates of 26 percent or lower and newborn complication rates of 37 percent or lower, Winston explained in a news release.

Of the 41 hospitals that participated in the U.S. News maternity services survey, the following 21 received the high performing designation:

• Einstein Medical Center Montgomery – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Geisinger-Bloomsburg Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Independence Health System – Westmoreland Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Jefferson Health-Abington Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest – Offers Postpartum Depression Screening and Services, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Private Rooms or Suites, Childbirth Classes, Midwives, Immersive Tub Hydrotheraphy During Labor, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants Available Before and/or After Discharge
• Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Main Line Health Riddle Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center – Offers Postpartum Depression Screening and Services, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Private Rooms or Suites, Childbirth Classes
• UPMC Altoona – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• UPMC Carlisle – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services
• UPMC Harrisburg – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• UPMC Horizon – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• UPMC Lititz – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services
• UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services, Immersive Hot Tub Therapy
• UPMC Memorial – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• UPMC Williamsport – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Midwives, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services
• West Penn Hospital – Offers Childbirth Classes, Private Rooms or Suites, Partner May Stay Overnight Post-Delivery, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Breastfeeding and Lactation Consultants, Perinatal Depression Screening and Services, Postpartum Depression Screening and Services

New to the rankings this year is the inaugural “Maternity Care Access Hospitals” list, which highlights 73 hospitals providing services in what otherwise would be maternity care deserts that have “left millions of people without local access to maternity care” in some parts of the country, Winston said.

In Pennsylvania, Maternity Care Access Hospitals are:

• UPMC Northwest
• Geisinger Lewistown Hospital
• Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill South Jackson Street
• WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital
• UPMC Carlisle
• WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital
• Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono
• UPMC Williamsport

The hospitals are ranked on objective measures of quality. Including C-section rate, lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates, birthing-friendly practices and transparency on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures. Read more about the methodology