We have some chilling and disturbing news to share with our fiends in the Marcellus industry in Pennsylvania. When Kathleen Kane, the now removed-from-office, former Attorney General of PA, took office in 2013, we speculated (based on her previous statements) whether or not she would target the drilling industry (see Will New PA AG Go After the Marcellus Drilling Industry?). Over the next several years, she did indeed target the industry, attempting to turn accidents into crimes (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO; PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes; and PA Attorney Gen. Kane Abuses Office Again, Arrest Warrant for EQT). Kane was later hoist with her own petard, jailed for a crime unrelated to the drilling industry (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Sentenced to Jail for Perjury). A fitting end to an undistinguished career. Kane’s successor, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, may be heading in the same direction as Kane by targeting the industry. Shapiro has just appointed an anti-driller, Steve Santarsiero, as Chief Deputy Attorney General of the Environmental Protection Section. It will be Santarsiero’s job to aggressively “prosecute cases against anyone or any company that breaks the law and harms our environment.” Santarsiero helped ban fracking on PA state land under former Gov. Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell…
