Hanger Kicks Off Gubernatorial Campaign

Scott Detrow

Recent Stories

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.

November 28, 2012 | 3:34 PM

Susan Phillips/StateImpact Pennsylvania

Former DEP Secretary John Hanger testifies at an air quality hearing.

A full two years before Pennsylvanians vote on their next governor, former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger has officially kicked off his campaign. More from the AP on today’s announcement:

Hanger vowed to make education the top priority for state funding and to end Pennsylvania’s status as the only major natural gas-producing state that does not tax production, but warned that gas alone “will never create prosperity” for the state.
“I will develop all our energy resources, including wind, solar and energy efficiency,” he said. “Saving energy remains the cheapest and cleanest energy resource available.”
Hanger said he favors legalizing gay marriage and the use of marijuana for medical purposes. He said he also supports abortion rights and passage of a state gay-rights law banning discrimination in matters such as housing and employment.

Hanger is the former head of Pennsylvania’s most high-profile environmental group, PennFuture, but has been criticized by hydraulic fracturing opponents like Josh Fox for the Rendell Administration’s embrace of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. (Hanger has an…unflattering…cameo in “Gasland,” and appeared in an industry-funded response to the film.)
Under Hanger, DEP tightened drilling regulations governing well construction standards and fluid disposal. The department’s budget was also cut by millions of dollars during his tenure.