Former Rep Discusses Environmental Issues On Radio Smart Talk

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

January 31, 2012 | 1:44 PM

Kury's new book, "Clean Politics Clean Streams"

This morning, witf’s Radio Smart Talk heard from former state Representative Franklin Kury, who has written a new book about his time in Harrisburg.

From 1905 to the mid-’60s, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted five clean water laws and coal companies were exempted from complying with each one. During that time, runoff from mines polluted many of the state’s waterways.
When legislation finally did pass that required coal companies to abide by the law, an incumbent lawmaker from Northumberland County was one of only six to vote against the bill. That gave his opponent — Franklin Kury — an opening and Kury took advantage by making the environment one of the keystones of his successful campaign.
Kury went on to serve in both the State House of Representatives and the Senate and has been described as a reformer during his time in office.

Here’s the interview: