Changing Priorities: Science Funding Slashed Under Corbett Administration

From the STATE IMPACT / NPR:

Mem­bers of Penn­syl­va­nia Gov. Tom Corbett’s admin­is­tra­tion rou­tinely insist their Mar­cel­lus Shale drilling pol­icy is based on science.

But doc­u­ments obtained by StateIm­pact Penn­syl­va­nia, as well as inter­views with more than a dozen peo­ple who work both inside and out of state gov­ern­ment, high­light top-level deci­sions to dimin­ish or defund drilling-related sci­en­tific research in the com­mon­wealth. Sci­en­tists say the decline in government-funded research dur­ing the first year of the Cor­bett Admin­is­tra­tion leaves open ques­tions about how ani­mals, wildlife and the cli­mate are affected by Pennsylvania’s drilling boom.

Emails and inter­views show Cor­bett appointee Richard Allan, who serves as Depart­ment of Con­ser­va­tion and Nat­ural Resources Sec­re­tary, over­saw sig­nif­i­cant changes to a state sci­en­tific research pro­gram and removed projects exam­in­ing the impact of nat­ural gas drilling and cli­mate change from a rec­om­mended fund­ing list…

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