PA Gov Wolf Searching for New DEP Sec 3 Mo After Firing Quigley

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

In May (three months ago), 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. We haven’t seen or heard much of McDonnell, but what we have seen and heard (via media reports) seems to be that McDonnell is a “get it done without generating controversy” kind of guy. Radical environmental groups don’t seem overly thrilled with McDonnell as Secretary (see PA’s New Acting Sec DEP: What Do We Know? Will He Be Permanent?). He is a man-made global warming flummery believer, so that’s a strike against him. But a lot of otherwise rational adults believe in such fairy tales, so we won’t hold it against him (too much). One thing is for sure: McDonnell wants to move from “Acting” to permanent Secretary of the DEP. However, it’s not looking promising that Gov. Tom Wolf will make his appointment permanent. It’s now been 90 days since Quigley was given the boot. Wolf has only 90 days to nominate someone. A common practice, when you’re not ready to nominate, is to use a placeholder name. Wolf has done so, and the placeholder name is not McDonnell’s…

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