Energy companies donate more than $1 million to Corbett's campaign coffers

• 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.

With the election less than a week away, Tom Corbett is way ahead when it comes to support from energy interests including coal, natural gas and power companies operating in the state. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has tallied up campaign contributions for the governor’s race and Tom Corbett’s campaign took in $1,148,351 in energy donations. That’s almost ten times the amount of energy dollars going to his opponent Democrat Tom Wolf. The Post-Gazette reports Wolf raised $192,985 from energy companies, including coal, wind and pipeline operators. Three of Wolf’s top individual energy contributors seem to have hedged their bets by also donating to Corbett.
Corbett’s highest individual donors are shale executives. Terrance Pegula from East Resources donated $250,000 to the governor, while John Monk of Energy Corporation of America gave $100,000. Third in line is Kelsey Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Group, which has plans to build a pipeline to transport Marcellus Shale gas.
Wolf and Corbett differ when it comes to taxing the natural gas industry. Corbett wants to maintain the status quo by charging $50,000 a well. But Wolf wants to impose a five percent tax on the market value of the gas produced. Even as the race tightens, it’s unclear what this money will mean to Corbett. Today’s Franklin and Marshall survey has Tom Wolf still leading in the polls.

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