Toomey Calls DRBC Voting Delay "Unfortunate"

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.

January 10, 2012 | 11:51 AM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, during an August 2011 town hall meeting in Tioga County

In an interview with the Wayne Independent, Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey called the Delaware River Basin Commission’s decision to postpone a vote on new drilling regulations “unfortunate.”
Here’s the excerpt, from Toomey’s conversation with reporter Josh Wengler:

Q:There are those in this area that have a vested interest in gas development that take huge issue with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) for the fact that they are an unelected body and they are able to throw a monkey wrench into gas extraction. What’s your take on that?

A:I think there decision was unfortunate. I don’t think it was necessary to impose a moratorium. I did not support the moratorium. I think the DEP is capable of regulating this properly and I think it should go ahead on that basis.

Q:Is there anything you’re doing at the federal level to help make that happen?

A: My sense is that’s not necessary at this point, to have some kind of federal intervention. It’s conceivable, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. I would rather see the commission come to the right conclusion on its own rather than have federal force.

A:The other thing that’s debated at the federal level is whether or not the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) needs to come in and create an overlay of another whole federal regulatory framework on top of various state frameworks and I don’t think that’s necessary or appropriate or desirable. So I have opposed those efforts and I intend to continue to oppose them.