PA Groups React to Obama's New Energy and Environment Appointments

• Marie Cusick
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  Marie Cusick was the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

President Obama announced new appointments this week to head the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy and advocates in Pennsylvania are praising the moves.
Gina McCarthy, a clean air regulator with the EPA is the president’s pick to lead the agency, while MIT physicist and natural gas advocate Ernest Moniz was chosen to head the Department of Energy.
The New York Times reports the appointments may signal a renewed focus on addressing climate change.

But even with Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Moniz in place, Obama would have to confront major hurdles in trying to refashion the American way of producing and consuming energy, the same hurdles that stymied climate and energy policy in his first term.
Among the first of those is a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which the administration appears inclined to approve over the vociferous objections of environmental advocates.
In introducing the nominees at the White House earlier this week, the president recognized the political and economic delicacy of the task facing both of them.

Both nominees received praise from DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, who was prone to clashes with the previous EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson.
“I know Ms. McCarthy,” Krancer said in a statement. “I will send her my congratulations and I very much look forward to working with her. I am encouraged by the fact that Secretary Designee Moniz seems to understand and subscribes to the belief that our nation needs and benefits from all of our rich, abundant, domestic fuel sources for energy. It appears she understands we can do this in a responsible manner that protects the environment.”
Kathryn Klaber, head of Pennsylvania’s gas industry group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, was also pleased with the president’s choices:

“Dr. Moniz, in particular, has a deep and demonstrated understanding of the historic opportunity associated with safe, well-regulated shale gas development. Likewise, Ms. McCarthy is well-positioned to encourage expanded natural gas development and use, which is leading to record air quality improvements.”

PennEnvironment also sent out a statement praising McCarthy.
“Pennsylvania’s and America’s air, water, open spaces, and public health will be in good hands with Gina McCarthy,” said Mary Kate Ranii, a Western Pennsylvania Field Associate for the organization.
Last spring, McCarthy outlined new EPA rules targeting air quality emissions at hydrofracking operations.As StateImpact reported, environmentalists praised the move, but the oil and gas industry said it could slow production.

McCarthy says the new rules will apply to an estimated 11,000 newly fracked wells each year. Smog-causing [volatile organic compounds], methane, and cancer-causing air emissions are all released during the fracking process.  Methane is a greenhouse gas that McCarthy says is 20 times more potent and C02.

At the national level, the Washington Post reports environmentalists have criticized Moniz for his support of gas drilling:

Over the past couple of weeks, many environmentalists and some prominent renewable energy experts have tried to block the nomination of Moniz because of an MIT report supporting “fracking” — as hydraulic fracturing is commonly known — and because major oil and gas companies, including BP, Shell, ENI and Saudi Aramco, provided as much as $25 million each to the MIT Energy Initiative. Other research money came from a foundation bankrolled by shale gas giant Chesapeake Energy.
“We would stress to Mr. Moniz that an ‘all of the above’ energy policy only means ‘more of the same,’ and we urge him to leave dangerous nuclear energy and toxic fracking behind while focusing on safe, clean energy sources like wind and solar,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement Monday.

Both McCarthy and Moniz still face confirmation in the Senate.
 

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