John Hanger, A Wary Drilling Advocate

Background

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John Hanger served as Pennsylvania’s Sec­re­tary of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion in 2009 and 2010. Before that, he was the pres­i­dent of envi­ron­men­tal advo­cacy group Pen­n­Fu­ture.

As Gov­er­nor Rendell’s last DEP Sec­re­tary, Hanger over­saw the early years of Pennsylvania’s Mar­cel­lus Shale nat­ural gas drilling boom. Despite his envi­ron­men­tal back­ground, Hanger became a strong sup­porter of drilling – albeit drilling done in a safe and respon­si­ble man­ner. He ramped up DEP’s per­mit­ting fees, and used the pro­ceeds to increase the department’s inspec­tions staff. Hanger also tight­ened Pennsylvania’s well cas­ing stan­dards, and decreased the amount of flow­back fluid drillers could dump into rivers and streams.

Still, Hanger’s sup­port of drilling has pit­ted him against hard-line envi­ron­men­tal­ists who want to see a com­plete stop to drilling. He’s por­trayed neg­a­tively in Gasland, and has clashed with the New York Times, over its cov­er­age of hydraulic frac­tur­ing.

Hanger writes a blog called “Facts of the Day.”