NJ Governor Has Interest in Fracking Technology

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

October 24, 2011 | 1:33 PM

Jeff Zelevansky / Getty Images

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club says Governor Chris Christie’s 2010 income tax return lists an investment in a company that treats frack wastewater. The firm, Ecosphere Technologies, provides on-site treatment of the frack fluid so that natural gas drillers can re-use the water to frack another well. The Ecosphere website says their technology has operated at more than 300 wells in shale plays across the country.
A press release put out by the Sierra Club says Christie earned more than $28,000 dollars last year from his stock in the company. The Sierra Club’s Jeff Tittel says the Governor’s investment is a conflict of interest.

“This raises concerns that the Governor is more committed to gas drilling than protecting New Jersey residents from the impacts of fracking. Unfortunately this leads to questioning decisions the Governor has made including vetoing the fracking ban bill and scrapping off-shore LNG which is a competitor to fracking,”

New Jersey does not contain significant shale gas deposits, and so no gas drilling will occur in the Garden state. But New Jersey does have a voice on the Delaware River Basin Commission, which is expected to enact new drilling rules next month.