I thought about starting off with some background, but decided rather than talk about how Dan Onorato has already screwed up Allegheny County - drink taxes, PAT shutdowns, unfunded pension funds, gold-plated subway tunnels - I would instead lead off with an issue that would affect all Pennsylvanians - Dan's little problem with "natural gas".
If you have not seen the documentary "Gasland" yet, go see it. (And then go see if you can light your sink on fire, because although you may not want to drink it, it looks like it would be awesome to see in person.) Seen it? Great. Now you have a background on the Marcellus Shale issue. Our fair commonwealth apparently sits on top of one of the largest collections of dinosaur farts in the country, and the companies that specialize in extracting these farts are interested in setting up shop here.
A reasonable person might suspect that, running as a Democrat and seeing a documentary about pyrotechnic plumbing, Dan would take the strong environmental approach and oppose it. That person would be wrong. Those of us in Allegheny County know, Dan Onorato never passes up an opportunity to pass a new tax.
Marcellus Shale has become the golden-egg laying goose for Dan. He wants to use it to fund everything from college educations to art museums. He even wants to use it to fund the DEP, the organization responsible for regulating and overseeing the environmental performance of this industry itself.
Does this sound a little too cozy for anyone? Would you voluntarily pull the plug on the industry that pays your bills? If you watch the film, you see our esteemed DEP Secretary John Hanger, who already appears to be too close for comfort with an industry that has two dinosaur fart well explosions in the state just in the last 2 months.
Can we really expect Dan Onorato to replace Mr. Hanger?
