Republican candidates for Pennsylvania governor are pledging to open up natural gas production, but there are constraints to what a governor can do.
“They don’t control those things,” said David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, a Philadelphia-based environmental group. “Their power, if elected, stops at the border of Pennsylvania. And if other states have aggressive climate-change agendas, clean-energy agendas, the marketplace makes clean energy competitive, if not cheaper, than fossil fuels.”
Toby Rice, president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based gas exploration firm EQT Corp., projects that it would take 6,500 miles of pipeline and $250 billion in LNG infrastructure in the U.S. to serve the U.S. and Europe and substantially cut coal use worldwide by 2030. During his campaign for governor, he has taken a middle-of-the-road stance — partly a nod to influential labor unions whose workers build power plants, pipelines and refineries. He says it's a “false choice” to have to pick between “environmental justice and the dignity of work and energy opportunity.”
He also stepped up for the industry: His administration issued permits for major gas-fired power plants, pipelines and refineries, and Wolf himself signed off on tax breaks to lure natural gas synthesis plants. While a governor might not single-handedly give the gas industry what it wants, he or she could be helpful, industry advocates say.
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