The memo by DEP Secretary Michael Krancer stating that all enforcement actions against Marcellus Shale drillers must be personally approved by him is about as blatant as it gets.
No matter how this is spun, it is a payoff to the gas corporations from Texas that funded Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's election campaign. No one should expect that this will increase environmental regulation of the gas industry. In fact, real enforcement is likely to sharply decrease except in the most blatant of cases. Short of there being an entire town with flaming faucets, there won't be any serious citations issued, and then only if the media finds out.
Think of the police officer who sees a speeding car with the distinctive Legislative license plate. Unless that car is going outrageously fast, not just 10 miles over the limit, he's going to pretend he didn't see anything rather than take the grief for ticketing a Legislator. Or issue a "warning" if he didn't see the plate and pulls him over anyway. It's just human nature.
DEP's inspectors will learn which Marcellus drilling companies contributed big to Corbett's campaign, and will pretend not to see violations. If a citizen complains, they will discover a million little bureaucratic reasons not to respond as they ought to do. It will all be perfectly legal, and entirely wrong.
Remember, this administration is only three months-old and still in the Linda Thompson $4,000 desk phase--the early, blatant idiocy that diverts attention from the really bad stuff going on behind the scenes.
Krancer ought to resign over that memo, but you know he was only doing what Corbett ordered him to do to please his big money donors.
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