PA DEP Sec. Abruzzo’s Last Public Interview…with MDN

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Sadly, Pennsylvania’s Sec. of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Christopher Abruzzo, resigned yesterday. See our lead story today for the details. Below is a podcast/recording of what MDN believes is Abruzzo’s last publicly recorded interview before he resigned–an interview with MDN editor Jim Willis. The interview was conducted at the Shale Insight event on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. It was one day later, on Sept. 25, that news broke of five year-old emails, passed between Abruzzo and friends, that allegedly contained pornographic images. The issue triggered Abruzzo’s resignation yesterday. Regardless of his departure, Jim’s interview concerned important issues for the environment and the drilling industry in PA. Here’s the tough issues Jim tackled during the interview…

Jim begins the interview by asking Sec. Abruzzo about the recent fine of Range Resources for leaky wastewater impoundments in Washington County, PA, the future of impoundments in PA, and what is this thing Abruzzo calls a “next generation” impoundment?

The list of 243 PA water wells that were “contaminated” by methane migration, is methane migration in PA getting worse or better?

PA Attorney General’s unflattering report on the DEP and the DEP’s shortcomings–your reaction to that report? Do you have enough boots on the ground?

You’ve been in charge since April 2013–your biggest challenge in that time? Your biggest delightful surprise?

Here’s the full 28-minute interview. Take time to listen.

2 Comments

  1. MDN good friend Chris Acker sent along this comment:

    A troubling day for us all. A purely political ploy right out of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” Isolate and destroy. While a dumb move years ago, we need a statute of limitations. The Democrats in PA are so anxious for a severance tax on oil and natural gas, they are working themselves into an apoplectic frenzy. Remember folks, never put anything into writing – on paper or in cyber-space – that you would not want the whole world (and in today’s context, this is literal) to see.