Full PA Senate Confirms Rich Negrin 48-1 for DEP Secretary

The Pennsylvania Senate voted yesterday to confirm Rich Negrin as the Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). No more "Acting" in front of his title. The vote was 48 to 1 to confirm, with the lone holdout being Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams). As we reported yesterday, Sen. Gene Yaw gave Negrin a grilling about several issues, one of them being the DEP's apparent support for House Bill (HB) 170 that would end all new Marcellus drilling by using extreme setbacks (see PA Senate Committee Grills, Approves Rich Negrin for DEP Secretary). Negrin said the DEP neither supports nor doesn't support any particular bill. And wouldn't you know it? Yesterday HB 170 was killed by Democrat Party "leadership," according to a very reluctant Rep. Greg Vitali (see today's story PA Dems Abandon Bill to Kill All Marcellus Drilling Using Setbacks). Coincidence? We think not.

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