Former Lawmaker Takes Coal Job

July 9, 2012 | 3:00 PM

Former State Senator John Pippy

Former Republican state Senator John Pippy – who resigned from his seat on June 30 – has been named CEO of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance. More from the Post-Gazette:

Mr. Pippy, a Republican from Moon who represented the 37th District for nine years, resigned from the Senate 10 days ago after voting on the state budget. A formal press conference is scheduled at 10 a.m. to announce the news, but the PA Coal Alliance website had already updated to include Mr. Pippy’s name as its top executive.
The Coal Alliance is forming after a merger of the Pennsylvania Coal Association and Families Organized to Represent the Coal Economy, or FORCE.
Mr. Pippy will lead a group whose members face troubled times. Preliminary data for the Environmental Information Agency’s April report showed natural gas nearly edging coal in electricity production, the first time the two energy sources have been so close since the agency began collecting data several decades ago.