From the LEHIGH VALLEY EXPRESS-TIMES:
…Corbett says the commission’s job is “to oversee how we can build around this new industry and how we can make certain we do this while protecting our lands, our drinking water, our air — all the time growing our work force.”
No qualms there. Certainly the recovery of natural gas deep in shale formations can be an industry and job-creation boom for Pennsylvania. It’s the matter of balance between today’s profits and tomorrow’s potential poisoning of public waterways that has us on edge.
Balance? Not in the 3-to-1 margin by which Corbett stacked the commission. More disturbing is that one member, Secretary of Community and Economic Development C. Alan Walker, is a former coal executive whose company was sued by the Department of Environmental Protection to clean up polluted water flowing out of its mines. Corbett wants to give Walker the authority to “expedite any permit or action pending in any agency” — including the DEP — as needed to protect the creation of jobs…
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