Lawmaker: DEP Chief Michael Krancer Denies Climate Change

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

February 21, 2013 | 11:26 AM

Susan Phillips / StateImpact Pennsylvania

DEP Secretary Michael Krancer.

Democratic State Rep. Greg Vitali, chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, says Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer refused to acknowledge climate change during a House budget hearing on Wednesday. In a release, the Delaware County legislator says Krancer avoided his questions on climate change, and was later grilled by other lawmakers.

Krancer repeatedly told the lawmakers that he does not acknowledge the validity of climate change and said he does not know Gov. Tom Corbett’s position on the issue. Vitali said he has been unable to find any public statements Corbett made about climate change during the governor’s first two years in office.