DEP Nominee OK'd By Panel
Must be approved by full state Senate
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
3 March 2011
By Tracie Mauriello, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- The state Department of Environmental Protection will be
in a key position as the Marcellus Shale gas industry expands in
Pennsylvania, but Michael Krancer convinced a Senate panel Wednesday
that the department can protect public safety while the industry grows.
As a result, the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee
unanimously approved Mr. Krancer's nomination as department secretary.
In a separate hearing Wednesday with few questions and no debate, the
Senate Judiciary Committee quickly endorsed the nomination of Frank
Noonan as state police commissioner.
The nominations now must be approved by the full Senate.
Mr. Krancer, 53, of Bryn Mawr said he would be open minded and would
seek information from diverse stakeholders, but in the end, he would be
decisive and would work with other agencies to provide consistency.
"There are going to be decisions that not everybody all the time is
going to agree with, but we do have to make decisions. We certainly owe
that to the people of Pennsylvania," Mr. Krancer testified.
Last year, the Rendell administration failed to persuade the
Legislature to agree on how to regulate and tax the fast growing
natural gas industry in the Marcellus Shale region.
New Gov. Tom Corbett, who nominated Mr. Krancer, opposes taxing the
industry. He has said he wants to attract drillers to the area because
they will create jobs and improve the economy.
Sen. John Yudichak of Luzerne County, the ranking Democrat on the
committee, noted that Mr. Krancer will have to strike an unusual
balance.
"There's probably no other time in our history that our DEP secretary
also is going to drive economic development," said Mr. Yudichak.
Mr. Krancer told the committee Pennsylvania doesn't have to choose
between protecting the environment and growing industry.
"Environmental regulation is not a zero-sum contest with business in
which there is the victor and the vanquished," he said.
"Responsible, strong, vibrant and growing business is the necessary
engine for environmental protection and conservation."
Gas regulation is at the forefront of the Corbett administration's
focus this term -- so much so that the governor is stacking his cabinet
with utility executives such as Mr. Krancer, who worked for two years
for Exelon Corp.
Mr. Krancer also worked for 10 years as a judge on the Pennsylvania
Environmental Hearing Board. In that role, he said, he often relied on
scientific data that was presented as evidence. He intends to do the
same as DEP secretary.
"We have to be directed by science. We cannot be influenced by
rhetoric," he said. "I don't want to say tune out the rhetoric, because
you have to hear it ... but at the end of the day, the sound science is
what we want to direct policy and decision-making."
Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, challenged whether Mr. Krancer would
put greater weight on scientists hired by gas drillers than those
working for universities and environmental groups.
He also questioned whether the administration's mission to attract gas
drillers would conflict with the DEP's mandate to protect air, land and
water.
"The role of the DEP, to me, is not the guy whose primary initiative is
to fight for economic development or the economic success of a
particular agency," he said. "The primary mission [should be] to wake
up every day and say 'How can I protect the environment?' "
Mr. Noonan, of Lackawanna County, the nominee for police commissioner,
has worked in law enforcement for 30 years, both with the FBI and in
the state attorney general's office.
Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com or 1-717-787-2141.