Gov. Tom Wolf came into office on a vow to protect Pennsylvanians from the harmful impacts of natural-gas drilling. But he has yet to push back on the state Legislature’s attempt to needlessly trade away clean air and water protections. This is not the leadership he promised his voters.
The Pennsylvania Senate recently approved a budget bill that puts the health and welfare of the citizens of the commonwealth in danger while further lining the pockets of out-of-state oil companies. While remaining silent about these dangerous rollbacks, Gov. Wolf’s spokesman lauded what he called the Senate’s progress on the state budget.
This represents a concerning about-face — and a startling lack of leadership — from the state’s chief executive, who has repeatedly vowed to protect Pennsylvanians from the dangers of natural-gas development.
The attack on clean air and water protections is severe:
• A committee of political appointees, stacked in favor of the oil and gas industry, would have the authority to negate policies implemented by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), including policies to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and climate-change agent, from oil and gas operations.
• Third-party reviewers (fee-for-hire agents) would be empowered to establish the veracity of industry permit applications. These reviewers, which could include geologists and even landscape architects, would be unsupervised, unaccountable and under no conflict-of-interest rules.
• Any permit not denied by the DEP within the mandated time frame would automatically be deemed approved, regardless of deficiencies or environmental risk.
The DEP currently oversees all of these functions, and for good reason: It’s critical that professionals immersed in the complexities surrounding our air, water and land be the ones tasked with enforcing protections. Under this scheme, the oil and gas industry would be regulating itself.
This is a textbook example of sending the fox to guard the hen house.
As former DEP Secretary Dave Hess, who served under two Republican governors, put it, “This proposal is so far away from the norm that it is almost incomprehensible and, I think, irresponsible. ... It’s just something that was put together fairly quickly with no thought whatsoever for how you run a permit program. It emasculates DEP’s ability to run an environmental program.”
Many of Pennsylvania’s elected officials, along with the worst actors in the natural-gas industry, are dismissive of the mandate entrusted to the state’s environmental watchdog. At the federal level, it’s akin to what the Trump administration is trying to pull off at the Environmental Protection Agency.
A strong economy and a healthy environment are not mutually exclusive. It’s time for Gov. Wolf to protect the people of Pennsylvania and honor the vow he made to voters. Clean air and water are not negotiable, as the Senate seems to think. This deal cannot stand, and the Pennsylvania House should not pass a budget riddled with environmental loopholes.
Dan Grossman is senior director of state programs for the Oil and Gas Environmental Defense Fund.
First Published: August 7, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
