Rehm Focuses Another Program on Fracking

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

August 29, 2011 | 4:23 PM

Diane Rehm devoted an hour of her public radio program to hydraulic fracturing today, and this time, former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger was not invited.
Reporters Ian Urbina (New York Times), Deborah Solomon (Wall Street Journal) and two other guests joined Rehm to discuss the SEC’s newfound interest in fracking, among other topics.

The last time Rehm covered fracking, she ended up in a spat with former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger. The Rendell Administration official was a guest on the show, and took offense to what he called a “clear imbalance” against drilling.
On his blog, Hanger pointed out Rehm owns land in Susquehanna County, and has refused to sign a gas lease. He hinted that fact amounted to a conflict-of-interest. In an interview with StateImpact, Rehm pushed back against his argument.

Rehm said she has disclosed the fact her family owns Pennsylvania land “on just about every other program” she’s done on gas drilling. “I thought it would be boring to mention it again, which is why I didn’t on that particular program,” she said in a phone interview. “It didn’t really occur to me to have to say it again.” She chalked up what Hanger labeled as “hostility” to the dynamics of managing four guests at once. “Hanger happened to be on the phone, and everybody wants to say something. And unfortunately when you’re on the phone and trying to get in on all the questions you’d like to get in on, it’s not possible.”

The Diane Rehm show is produced by WAMU, and distributed by NPR.