Klaber to Step Down from Marcellus Shale Coalition

• 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.

Pennsylvania’s top natural gas trade group is looking for a new leader. The Marcellus Shale Coalition announced on Friday that the current CEO Kathryn Klaber, will be leaving the organization after four years. The MSC was formed by a group of Marcellus Shale producers in late 2009, to be the public face of the state’s burgeoning energy industry. Klaber has directed the organization since its inception. Its staffers work to influence drilling-related legislation, host the annual “Shale Insight” conference in Philadelphia, interact with the press, and promote the benefits of gas drilling. Its members were heavily involved in shaping the state’s new drilling law, Act 13.
Klaber earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Bucknell University. She worked previously at the consulting firm Environmental Resources Management, led the Pennsylvania Economy League, and before taking the job at the MSC, was an executive vice president at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.
“Pennsylvania is now producing nearly 10 percent of the nation’s natural gas,” said Klaber in a press release. “Our industry’s work has been described as ‘revolutionary’ and ‘game-changing’. The work of the MSC, collaborating with public officials, has helped create the climate for growth of an industry that has delivered on its promises to create American jobs, increase our energy security, while holding safety and environmental performance as paramount.”
The Marcellus Shale Coalition has grown to include more than 40 energy companies, and several hundred companies with ancillary ties to the drilling industry. The Coalition plans to conduct a national search with the goal of having a new CEO in place by the end of the year. In the meantime, Klaber will remain through the fall and be involved in the transition.

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