In the Susquehanna River Basin, just one well can use an average of 4.4 million gallons of water during a frack job, which can last several days to a week. The majority of that water comes from Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 miles of streams polluted by abandoned coalmine drainage flow through Pennsylvania’s forests, [...]
There were no mentions of Pennsylvania beating Texas to become the nation’s new “energy state,” but Governor Tom Corbett spent almost four minutes talking energy in Tuesday’s 2013 budget address. Corbett praised the job-creation of Pennsylvania’s burgeoning energy sector, saying it resulted in “hundreds of thousands of new jobs.” But what Corbett didn’t talk about, [...]
At a press conference to promote a new government transparency website, Governor Corbett was reluctant to answer questions about a free vacation he took to Rhode Island last year, paid for by a friend who does business with the natural gas industry. StateImpact Pennsylvania first reported the trip, which was originally omitted from Corbett’s filing with the [...]
In July 2011, Governor Corbett took a vacation to Rhode Island that was paid for by a central Pennsylvania businessman with ties to the natural gas drilling industry. The trip was noted in a November revision to Corbett’s annual statement of financial interests with the State Ethics Commission. It shows that John Moran, Jr. spent $1,422 on air [...]
Four Pennsylvania townships that have had their impact fee payments withheld say the Public Utility Commission has no right to deny them the money authorized by the state’s new drilling law. Those same four municipalities have sued to have aspects of the new law, Act 13, overturned. A state appeals court ruled in their favor, [...]
The Center for Public Integrity has published an investigative piece that raises questions about the source of campaign contributions to Gov. Corbett during his 2010 race for governor against Democrat Dan Onorato. By election day, CPI reports that $6 million flowed into Corbett’s campaign coffers through the Republican Governor’s Association. But the source of one [...]
State parks director John Norbeck has announced he’s leaving his position, after serving the state for the past six years. Norbeck’s resignation letter does not give a reason for his departure. But environmentalists concerned about possible natural gas drilling on state park lands are worried. Jan Jarrett, the former head of the environmental group PennFuture, speculates [...]
Should two refineries be considered one? That’s the question raised by a lawsuit filed last week by the Clean Air Council against the state Department of Environmental Protection. The case has to do with a couple of refineries in southeast Pennsylvania, one in Philadelphia and the other near the Delaware border in Marcus Hook. The [...]
Natural gas industry professionals and their critics will be crossing paths in downtown Philadelphia Thursday and Friday. But don’t expect the two groups to engage in a detente. Two thousand people are expected to attend the second annual Shale Gas Insight 2012 conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, generating more than $5 million in economic [...]
The Department of Environmental Protection says their proposed permit review process will encourage applicants to meet with DEP officials before applying, and is meant to stop wasting employee’s time. DEP Secretary Michael Krancer says that about 40 percent of the permit applications it receives currently, are incomplete. “Setting the clear expectation that every permit application should [...]
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