Coal mogul gets role with Corbett

Governor wants him to expedite permits for Marcellus Shale drilling

C. Alan Walker

For years C. Alan Walker, a coal industry mogul and wealthy donor to Pennsylvania's Republican Party, clashed with environmental officials who tried to regulate his companies. He described them as "vindictive" and "out of control."

In 1981, Mr. Walker argued that the state should let someone from industry influence how environmental regulations were enforced.

Now Mr. Walker himself has been given exactly that role by the state's new Republican governor, Tom Corbett, who has accepted nearly $184,000 in political donations from Mr. Walker since 2004.

In January, Mr. Corbett appointed Mr. Walker acting secretary for the state's Department of Community and Economic Development. In March he gave him authority to expedite and influence permits at any state agency, including the Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Mr. Walker also was appointed to the state's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, a multi-stakeholder group that will advise the state in developing the Marcellus Shale, a major source of natural gas. The goal, Mr. Corbett has said, is to "make Pennsylvania the Texas of the natural gas boom."

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A spokesman for Mr. Corbett said that Mr. Walker's role is not unprecedented and that his influence will be tightly focused on promoting job growth while preserving environmental enforcement.

Mr. Walker recently assured state legislators that he will not issue permits or override environmental decisions. "I'm merely here as an expediter to make sure that permits get the proper attention," he said.

He has also defended the environmental record of his coal companies, which were cited numerous times for polluting streams and drinking water: "As long as I have run those companies, not one gallon of polluted water went into a Commonwealth stream -- period," he told the Patriot News last month.

However, a review of court documents, state records and of Mr. Walker's own statements since the late 1970s revealed at least 15 cases in which his businesses polluted the state's waterways.

State records show that in the 1980s and 1990s Mr. Walker's companies were ordered to treat wastewater that was contaminating residential drinking water wells and nearby streams.

Many of the streams lead into larger waterways, including the Susquehanna River. In Rush Township mines drained into streams, polluting the municipal water supply for the nearby Clearfield County town of Houtzdale, as well as Mountain Branch, a stocked trout stream.

In an email, a DCED spokesman said that mining is a dirty business and that Mr. Walker had met his legal responsibilities.

In 2003, Mr. Walker told the DEP that his companies, which were winding down operations, could no longer afford to treat the wastewater. After he threatened to stop treating the waste sites, he reached a summary settlement with the state: He and his insurance companies contributed to a $7.2 million cleanup trust, and the state released him from his treatment responsibilities. Mr. Walker said recently that he never intended to stop treating the wastewater, and his stance at the time was merely a negotiating tactic.