Fracking in Pa. raises concerns about 'revolving door' regulators and environmental impacts

A recent report found that many of Pennsylvania's policymakers, regulators and enforcement workers have come from the oil and gas industry they oversee, or they leave state jobs for industry jobs, writes Don Hopey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The report by the Public Accountability Initiative found that the last four governors and 45 current or state officials had ties to the gas industry.

The report questions the impacts of such a "revolving door" on public policy decisions, writes Hopey. "There's a concern about people in state government providing favors to industries that might hire them, in effect helping to feather the nest they land in," said Jeff Schmidt, executive director of the Sierra Club in Pennsylvania. Schmidt also has concerns about former industry executives coming to government and being in positions to weaken or reduce enforcement. The phenomenon is present in many states and to some extent in the federal government.

The natural-gas boom and the hydraulic fracturing that has enabled it have brought prosperity and conflict to rural Pennsylvania. In the town of Dimock, the Linde Corp. has seen its workforce nearly triple over the past five years as it switched from constructing buildings to laying miles of gas pipelines connecting hundreds of wells drilled in the rolling rural terrain in Susquehanna County, writes Timothy B. Wheeler of The Baltimore Sun. 

Some local residents aren't so happy about the company. Matt and Tammy Manning say that more than a year ago, the water coming out of their household well turned dark gray, Wheeler writes. Tests by the state found dangerous levels of methane in it, and regulators are investigating the cause. The couple must buy bottled water to drink, while a gas company that drilled in the area furnishes non-potable water for showers and washing clothes. Homeowners in other Pennsylvania communities also have complained that their wells were fouled and their health endangered. The allegations — disputed by the industry and only rarely upheld by state authorities — have caused bitter divides, pitting neighbors and even family members against one another.