• Rachel McDevitt
  
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  Rachel McDevitt is a reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.

  Rachel joined WITF in 2017 because the host of All Issues Thought-about. She beforehand reported for WITF’s Radio Pennsylvania Community, the place her work earned the Nationwide Affiliation of State Radio Community’s award for greatest characteristic two years in a row. The western Pennsylvania native began her journalism profession with the CBS affiliate in Bridgeport, West Virginia. Rachel is a graduate of Temple College.

Marie Cusick / StateImpact Pennsylvania

On this 2015 picture, anti-fracking activist Dory Hippauf protests outdoors a state Division of Environmental Safety assembly on pipelines. DEP has been criticized by opponents of the cross-state Mariner East pipeline for not doing sufficient in response to repeated allow violations throughout development of that undertaking.

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January 12, 2023 | 9:39 AM

A former secretary of the Division of Environmental Safety says the brand new chief can have his administration abilities examined at an company that’s been constrained by a decade of underfunding.

Courtesy: Shapiro Transition Crew

Wealthy Negrin has been nominated to be Secretary of the Division of Environmental Safety by the incoming Shapiro Administration.

The incoming Shapiro Administration needs Wealthy Negrin to move the company. If he’s authorised by the Senate, he’ll lead round 2,400 staff at an company that regulates air and water air pollution, mining, oil and fuel, and is principally liable for the state’s local weather change insurance policies.

The brand new secretary might want to contemplate points starting from the impacts of fracking and pipeline security to implementing a sweeping new carbon buying and selling program within the Regional Greenhouse Fuel Initiative, if this system clears authorized hurdles. DEP has been scrutinized in these areas earlier than; a grand jury report in 2020 stated the company failed to guard Pennsylvanians from the ailing results of fracking.

Negrin beforehand managed 30,000 staff for the Metropolis of Philadelphia and most just lately developed clear power coverage for an Illinois electrical firm.

Governor-elect Josh Shapiro pointed to Negrin’s “lengthy monitor document of main massive, complicated organizations” in his announcement Tuesday.

Patrick McDonnell, former DEP secretary beneath Gov. Tom Wolf, stated good administration will likely be important to point out that the company can deal with the workload the general public expects.

McDonnell, who now leads the environmental group PennFuture, stated Negrin’s expertise in metropolis authorities ought to assist.

“A lot of the work and the way in which we had been in a position to get issues carried out once I was with the division was working with municipalities on every thing from zoning points, to wash air points, fleet points, infrastructure points,” McDonnell stated. “So having that background and understanding what these municipal officers are up towards is necessary.”

He stated Negrin ought to lean on the experience of his employees.

“I all the time used to say ardour was type of the superpower of the division, so tapping into that zeal to assist carry up the work, display what we will do with current assets at DEP,” McDonnell stated.

DEP noticed some finances will increase whereas McDonnell was secretary, however he stated it has suffered from a scarcity of assets for greater than a decade. He hopes the Shapiro Administration will push for more cash.

The most recent state finances gave vital new cash to water and conservation applications, together with greater than $300 million to improve stormwater and sewer methods and $100 million to enhance state parks and forests. DEP’s finances included $13.9 million greater than the earlier 12 months, partly to rent 40 new employees members. The company’s allocation from the state’s basic fund continues to be decrease than it was within the early 2000s.

Negrin will take over an company that has been criticized by many, together with the Governor-elect.

As Legal professional Basic, Shapiro empaneled a grand jury that produced a report saying DEP was not ready to deal with the fuel drilling increase. The grand jury stated the division failed to guard the general public from well being results of the inflow of drilling, and that the company deferred an excessive amount of to business.

The Wolf Administration known as the report “inaccurate.” It stated it inherited a flawed regulatory method from the Republican Corbett Administration and that it had ramped up inspections since taking on.

Shapiro introduced expenses towards Vitality Switch for issues with its Mariner East pipeline undertaking and towards Coterra Vitality for polluting ingesting water with drilling exercise in Dimock. The AG’s workplace reached agreements with each corporations final 12 months.

In his marketing campaign for governor, Shapiro burdened accountability for polluters.

He’s additionally emphasised bringing stakeholders from all areas collectively to search out options. Pennsylvania has an extended historical past of fossil gasoline extraction and drilling and mining corporations with a variety of political pull. Shapiro has stated he needs to create a local weather coverage that gained’t value the state jobs. Negrin must stability these priorities at DEP.

Commonwealth Media Companies

Pennsylvania Division of Environmental Safety (DEP) Secretary Patrick McDonnell publicizes the enlargement of the Native Local weather Motion Coaching to 121 extra municipalities, in Harrisburg, PA on Could 11, 2022.

McDonnell recommends Negrin work with folks throughout the state and maintain listening classes to get a grasp of issues on the bottom. He hopes the administration will concentrate on group impacts of local weather change and proceed to convey environmental justice points into all areas of the company’s work.

David Masur, government director of PennEnvironment, stated Negrin is bringing an necessary set of abilities to the company at a important time.

“Below the Nutter administration, he was seen as somebody who was a teambuilder, somebody who may recruit and retain and encourage high quality employees, somebody who can discover methods to enhance the methods inside a big division,” Masur stated.

State Rep. Mary Isaacson (D-Philadelphia), who served on the Home Environmental Sources and Vitality committee final session, stated she hopes Negrin’s expertise with utilities provides him grasp of points just like the transition to cleaner power, new applied sciences like hydrogen hubs, and complicated regulatory processes. She stated she’s wanting ahead to working with somebody who understands an city atmosphere.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition stated it seems ahead to working with Negrin to advance financial and environmental progress – powered by pure fuel. The fracking business touts its financial affect in Pa., however a number of research have proven that poor administration practices and waste merchandise from drilling can hurt folks’s well being.

“Governor-Elect Shapiro has prioritized the significance of working collectively, and he can rely on our business to work collaboratively with him and his whole crew towards commonsense coverage options,” MSC President David Callahan stated.

Negrin is a former prosecutor and former Philadelphia deputy mayor. He served as town’s managing director beneath Mayor Michael Nutter from 2010 to 2016.

Negrin involves DEP from an Exelon-owned utility in Illinois, the place he was Vice President of Regulatory Coverage and Technique. At Commonwealth Edison, he oversaw clear power regulatory insurance policies, electrical car adoption and power effectivity efforts.

The Shapiro transition crew says Negrin would be the first Latino to function DEP Secretary.

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