Rendell: 'I don't apologize at all' for fracking

• Marie Cusick
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  Marie Cusick was the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

Former Governor Ed Rendell is walking back comments he made last month at the Democratic National Convention, when he said he’d “made a mistake” putting economic gains ahead of environmental protection in the early days of the state’s Marcellus Shale gas boom.
“I don’t apologize at all,” he recently told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’m a strong advocate of continuing to frack.”
The Democrat was governor from 2003 to 2011 and oversaw the beginning of Pennsylvania’s drilling boom. StateImpact Pennsylvania first reported his remarks.
“We didn’t regulate well construction and …. frack water as well as we should,” Rendell said at a panel discussion during the DNC. “We cured that in 2010 and we haven’t had any significant incidents since.”
When asked by the Post-Gazette about the leaks, explosions, and accidents that have occurred since 2010, Rendell said there have not been many, compared to the early days.
“Anything you do you’re going have some problems,” he told the paper.
Rendell did not respond to requests by StateImpact Pennsylvania to clarify his views.

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