Clean Air Council Calls on PUC Commissioner Robert Powelson to Step Down After “Jihad” Remarks to Gas Industry Representatives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 23, 2017) – Official statement from Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel, Clean Air Council:
“The statements that Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner Robert Powelson recently made to a group of gas industry representatives is abhorrent and seems indicative of how captured he is by the natural gas industry. Mr. Powelson intended to disparage all Pennsylvanians who care about their private property, the water they drink, and the air they breathe. Mr. Powelson used a racially charged term, “Jihad,” to not only appeal to the natural gas representatives in the audience, but also to the Trump administration which he is hoping to work for as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Mr. Powelson should be ashamed of himself, and should issue an apology to the thousands of Pennsylvanians who fight every day for the protections that he believes are only to be bestowed upon wealthy businesses.
Clean Air Council is calling on Mr. Powelson to immediately resign from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. This type of racial divisiveness and fear mongering is not conducive to meaningful dialogue in the state, and should not be tolerated.”
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Contact: Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Clean Air Council, 215.567.4004 x116, joe_minott@cleanair.org
We don’t need to further the destruction of this beautiful state. When I moved back to Pennsylvania 3 years ago, I was surprised how few solar panels I saw.
Air quality needs to be improved, not ignored. I have developed asthma from the awful sludge farmers are permitted to use on fields in PA.
Fracking for the extraction of “natural gas” destabilizes the land. Just look at Oklahoma. Thanks to the natural gas industry’s ties to their state’s government, Oklahoma now has earthquakes occurring with much greater frequency than Southern California. I know. I lived in CA for 25 years.
ANYONE who appears to put lobbyists’ profits above the people they serve NEEDS TO GO. We deserve advocates for improvements in airquality, water, and clean energy options.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
He must go
He must go!
Resign . Your job is not to empower you, but to protect our environment
His comments were appalling. So much for impartial regulation. Resign.
I’m with you. Stop the corruption
Why do you want to kill us by polluting the air even more than it is? What happened to reusable energy? We keep taking things the only Earth wet have and don’t think twice about the future of humanity. Sad that greed is the only thing that makes men feel.