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Pennsylvania governor gives energy executive supreme authority over environmental permitting

"I have never seen anybody give an economic development director the authority to tell every other agency in the state what to do with regard to its statutory responsibilities."

In 2002, three of Walker’s coal companies notified Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection that they had run out of money and were going to stop treating the 173 million gallons of polluted water they produced each year and released into tributaries of the Susquehanna River. The state eventually got a court injunction to force them to continue treating the wastewater as required by state and federal law.

Private water wells have been contaminated with methane gas and other pollutants across the state, and in many cases the DEP has found that hasty or insufficient gas well construction was to blame. Several drilling site accidents have led to spills where wastewater, including from hydraulic fracturing, contaminated streams.

By Abrahm Lustgarten , Nicholas Kusnetz and Joaquin Sapien

Full Story: http://seattlepostglobe.org/2011/03/11/pa-governor-gives-energy-executive-supreme-authority-over-environmental-permitting

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