Natural-gas exec paid for Corbett 2011 vacation
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Natural-gas exec paid for Corbett 2011 vacation
Gov. Tom Corbett and his wife accepted a Rhode Island vacation last year from a businessman even as regulators from the state Department of Environmental Conservation were looking into his firm's operation of a natural-gas waste transfer station without a permit.
The StateImpact Pennsylvania project is reporting that the governor just last month amended his original 2011 ethics filing to add that John Moran Jr. of Moran Industries had paid $1,422 to fly Corbett and his wife to a hotel in Rhode Island and put them up in a hotel for a long weekend in July of that year.
Moran -- also identified as a major Corbett donor who has given at least $75,000 to his campaigns and was named by the governor to his privatization panel -- is a trucking executive who launched an oil-and-gas subsidiary. He told a reporter at last year's opening of his "natural gas park" in Williamsport that the rise of the gas industry here is "a gift from God."
In December of last year -- or five months after Moran paid for the Corbetts' vacation -- the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, reported that Pennsylvania regulators had been investigating for more than a year Moran's operation of the Sunbury, Pa., waste-transfer site . The facility had been shipping drilling waste by rail to a landfill in Ohio without a permit. It said that Moran had claimed he didn't need a permit because of a loophole in federal railroad law.
Local residents had angrily complained about Moran's operation, according to the website Pennsylvania From Below, raising questions about strong chemical odors coming from trucks entering the facility and asking what exactly was in the drill-cutting waste from Marcellus Shale fracking sites that were being transported there.
StateImpact Pennsylvania reported that in addition to the Rhode Island vacation, Moran also paid $901 to fly Corbett on a private plane to events in Williamsport and in Pittsburgh in September 2011. It said Moran was one of Pennsylvania's representatives on a six-day European trade mission touting the benefits of fracking in the Marcellus Shale.
Since taking office last year, Corbett has been under fire to his ties to the gas-drilling industry, which donated more than $900,000 to his winning campaign. Critics say there's been lax industry oversight and criticized Corbett's reluctance to tax drilling, although he eventually agreed this year to an impact fee on gas rigs.
StateImpact Pennsylvania said Corbett's press secretary Kevin Harley "denied that the governor was trying to hide anything and said it was omitted from the original ethics filing due to a clerical error."
- You're the reverse side of the disgusting racist mentality that rears it's ugly head on this site.
— wokmaster 
And a reported in this rag fast eddie's people got jobs Another member of Gov. Rendell's inner circle has left to work for a Marcellus Shale natural gas producer, the third high-ranking administration official in the last year to move directly into the fast-growing industry.Sarah Battisti, one of Rendell's five deputy chiefs of staff, has taken a government affairs position with BG Group, a British gas company that recently bought a stake in Pennsylvania's natural gas business, Steve Crawford, Rendell's chief of staff, said Monday. (HTML deleted)— chesterfield- @nat turner...and the "Alabama" portion of Pennsylvania as you and Mr. Carville call it can rely on an honest politician for the corrupt, content, and provincial city of Philadelphia. We had Ed Rendell, proof enough. No fan of Corbett...just wish people around Philadelphia would think outside of the box for once.— FletcherT
- Corbett is toast in 2014. No surprise that he was bribed by frackers via vacations/campaign contributions.
This guy couldn't even answer questions on school safety this afternoon because of his fear of the NRA. All he could say was that the whole Newtown incident was entirely mental health related.— daxtremesolja - To call John Moran a natural gas exec is quite a stretch. He runs a trucking/logistics company. So the headline is bogus. BTW, when you morons freeze in the dark, don't complain about where the energy comes from.— SamHouston
- Fast Eddie Rendell did not care about the gas country when he was Governor. Why should people from the gas country (Bradford, Tioga, Clearfield Counties, etc.) care about what people in Philadelphia think. They are the ones that will get some money from the raping of our state. Philadelphia is just looking for a money grab, nothing more, to support their corrupt, content, and provincial government. I just wish there was a moderate in the field for 2014...not Schwartz, not Corbett. Someone who represented the best interest of our diverse state.— FletcherT
- How about Joe Sestack? Btw, your comment on the previous thread about Yoko Ono made me laugh out loud. — wokmaster
- Corbett needs to go! He can probably go to work as legal counsel to these folks in the gas industry, since they are already paying him a salary.
— Anne Arkey - I sure hope Pennsylvania voters have a long enough memory to remember all of these underhanded things that Corbett has done, on top of constantly governing against the will of the people, come election time!— ANGRY AL 2
- @wok...while I don't put any faith in 99.99% of your posts on this site, I do thank you for your reply to nat turner. Name calling does no good, and only widens the political divide.— FletcherT
- Well, Add this to the AG's list right after the Sandusky fiasco. She's gonna be busy!!— linuxdood
- Gotta wonder how Republican toadies feel about being duped, yet again, into voting against their own best interests. You know, Dems have been trying, for decades, to explain that as long as they keep voting for these Republican candidates, they will continue to take their votes for granted and continue to sell them out like Corbett is doing.— Talking point sleuth
- Corbett should resign; worst Governor in Pennsylvania history. Has been a complete clown.— DoctorLoads
- Gov Corbett should resign. He actually should be impeached or recalled. He is so bought and paid for that is very embarrassing.— The One Who Knows
It's not surprising behavior for a former garbage dump lawyer who brought his stench with him to the Governor's mansion by introducing "Jim Crow" era laws to the once proud Comm. of PA.— trebordet
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