Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday that the Pa. Department of Health’s acting secretary is leaving the administration.

Keara Klinepeter, executive deputy secretary with the department, will step into the acting health secretary role when Alison Beam resigns at the end of the year.

The announcement of Beam’s departure comes days after the state Supreme Court struck down the school mask mandate she issued in August.

“I am proud to have worked with Acting Secretary Beam over the past several years, and the commonwealth has been fortunate to have had the benefit of her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic – especially as the Department of Health oversaw a massive vaccine roll-out over the course of the past year,” Wolf said in a news release.

“Thank you, Acting Secretary Beam, for stepping up to serve the commonwealth during a difficult time. We will miss your leadership, your determination and your dedication to building healthier communities for all Pennsylvanians.”

Beam stepped into the role vacated by Dr. Rachel Levine nearly a year ago when Levine was tapped by the Biden administration to be the federal assistant health secretary.

At the time, Beam was hoped to provide a ‘fresh perspective’ on the COVID-19 pandemic. She was Wolf’s deputy chief of staff prior to stepping into the acting role.

“Serving as acting secretary during such a critical time in public health has been the most humbling honor of my career,” Beam said in the same news release that announced her resignation.

https://www.pennlive.com/politics/2021/12/pa-acting-health-secretary-alison-beam-to-step-down-at-end-of-the-year.html

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration wants the centerpiece of the Democrat’s plan to fight climate change to take effect immediately, but it is being held up in a growing legal dispute by an agency that answers to the Republican-controlled Legislature.

On Friday, Wolf’s secretary of environmental protection, Patrick McDonnell, wrote to the Legislative Reference Bureau to insist that it publish Wolf’s regulation to impose a price on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Publishing it in the Pennsylvania Bulletin would mean the regulation takes immediate effect, and would make Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy. The bulletin is published weekly as an official record of actions by government agencies.

However, Republicans who control the Legislature oppose the regulation and argue that they have more time, months even, to take votes on it. McDonnell wrote that the legislative review period has expired and that Republicans’ interpretation of the law is wrong.

“It is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine, unnecessarily impeding the executive branch’s ability to execute its rulemaking authority,” McDonnell wrote.

House and Senate leaders, however, did not back down Monday from their interpretation of the law and its timeline.

https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/capitol-ideas/mc-nws-pa-wolf-carbon-pricing-20211213-lnih4xhswzcfxfg6qaf6ek5w5q-story.html

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The highest-ranking member of the Pennsylvania state Senate said Monday that he won't seek another term in the chamber in order to focus on his candidacy for the governorship.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, took himself out of the running for another term representing a State College area district.

He had previously said that he would run for both the governor's office and his Senate seat at the same time when he announced his candidacy last month.

Corman is among a large cohort of Republicans seeking the gubernatorial nomination in the May 17 primary election. It is his first run for statewide office.

Corman, 57, was first elected to the state Senate in 1998. His father, Doyle Corman, held the seat before him, serving in the Senate from 1977 to 1998.

Corman has made his time as a legislative leader a key part of his campaign message in running for governor, saying that he understands how to work with lawmakers to get things done.

Second-term state Attorney General Josh Shapiro is the presumed Democratic nominee to run for governor.

Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat first elected in 2014, is constitutionally term limited, and cannot serve a third term in office.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/pennsylvania/articles/2021-12-13/corman-wont-seek-another-senate-term-amid-run-for-governor