Shortly after assuming the office of Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley (who formerly worked for the anti-drilling Big Green group PennFuture) mass-fired a very important group at the DEP called the Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board, or TAB (see Why did PA DEP Acting Sec Quigley Mass Fire Gas Advisory Board?). Quigley installed his own yes-men and women in the group, including the illegal move of appointing non-voting members. The reason the make-up of TAB is important is because just prior to Gov. Corbett leaving office, the DEP had re-worked new drilling regulations, a required re-work under the Act 13 law passed in 2012, approved by the existing TAB. The DEP was ready to finalize and publish the new regulations, known as Chapter 78 and 78a, but in the chaos of the campaign and Corbett losing, the DEP fumbled the ball and now that a fox (or rather a Wolf) is guarding the hen-house, the re-worked rules have been re-worked again and Wolf/Quigley needed a new group of people to approve the changes. Hence the mass-firings at TAB. PIOGA is still valiantly resisting this sleazy move by Quigley (see PIOGA Turns Up the Heat on Wolf/Quigley Over TAB/Article 78). Yesterday the DEP met with newly-appointed TAB members to outline the “final” changes they (the DEP) has made and wants the new TAB to rubber stamp…
