Environmental group distances itself from regional shale center
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PITTSBURGH – Another environmental group has distanced itself from the Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale Development, a hotly debated partnership of major energy companies, green groups and foundations.
PennFuture, a leading Pennsylvania environmental group that helped found the center, is no longer a “strategic partner.”
The Public Accountability Initiative, a Buffalo, N.Y., nonprofit, disclosed the shift Wednesday and criticized the center’s staff and funders for ties to the oil and gas industry.
PennFuture spokeswoman Elaine Labalme said the group will still participate with the center when it believes it is worth providing input.
The center said its members will follow voluntary standards that are tougher than existing state laws. The idea has been criticized by some environmentalists, who say a voluntary program is no substitute for tough state or federal rules, and by some in industry, who say there’s no need to go beyond existing regulations.
The center’s current 11-member board includes energy companies Chevron, Shell, EQT and Consol Energy, along with the Clean Air Task Force, the Environmental Defense Fund, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Christine Todd Whitman, a former New Jersey governor and U.S. Environmental Protection administrator.
Over the past year, the Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation stopped funding the center.