Gov. Wolf Nominates Pat McDonnell to Head PA DEP, Finally

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Patrick McDonnell Acting Secretary, DEP
Patrick McDonnell Acting Secretary, DEP

In May 2016, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Quigley was fired for using a PRIVATE email account to collude with his Big Green friends to try and bully PA’s legislators into supporting his onerous proposed regulations (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Richly deserved. The man who took his place as Acting Secretary is Patrick McDonnell, a 19-year veteran of the DEP. Although Pat made it clear he’d like to move from “acting” to full Secretary, as of a few weeks ago Wolf still hadn’t put forth McDonnell–nor anyone else’s–name for the permanent position (see PA Gov Wolf Searching for New DEP Sec 3 Mo After Firing Quigley). As we stated at the time, McDonnell, while not without his faults (he believes in man-made global warming flummery, but so do a lot of otherwise rational adults), he seems to be a “get it done without generating controversy” kind of guy and not nearly as extreme as Quigley was. Radical environmental groups didn’t seem overly thrilled with McDonnell as Secretary (see PA’s New Acting Sec DEP: What Do We Know? Will He Be Permanent?). However, the radicals are moderating their words, because yesterday Wolf went ahead nominated Pat for the position…

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