Act 13: State official disputes "plain language" analysis
Patrick Henderson said some of the analysis was "simply fiction" and offered his own version of what's in Act 13.
On Monday, the state environmental group, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, issued an analysis of the state's new natural gas law, Act 13, saying it was an attempt at an unbiased "plain language" translation of the lengthy, complex document.
Today, the governor's chief energy executive, Patrick Henderson, disputed that analysis. "To be clear, PennFuture's analysis is neither unbiased (they condemned Act 13) nor accurate," he said in an email. "Some of the analysis asserted by PennFuture is simply fiction and absolutely not true."
Henderson released his response to PennFuture's two-page summary of the act, one that he said "accurately describes what was in Act 13." PennFuture's comments are in black; Henderson's are in red.
He said he had not contacted the group to air his concerns, calling it "a fool's errand, from my perspective."
Brian Glass, chair of PennFuture's legal staff, said on Monday that "it's our hope that folks who read the report have an opportunity to reach out to our law staff with any questions they might have. We've committed ourselves to answering any questions folks might have and to keeping an open dialog....make this a living, breathing document as we go forward."
Given the intense and rancorous debate over portions of Act 13, the document may be living and breathing, but perhaps also bruised and bloodied.