McGinty steps down at Pennsylvania DEP

HARRISBURG - Kathleen McGinty, who as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection was in charge of executing Gov. Rendell's agenda to clean up the environment, advance energy-conservation initiatives, and attract green businesses, is stepping down.

In her resignation letter, McGinty thanked Rendell for giving her the "privilege of serving" on his team, but offered no glimpse of future plans beyond taking a vacation with her family.

The letter, which was not made public, said her resignation is effective next Friday. A formal announcement will be made today, a spokesman for Rendell said.

McGinty, 45, a Philadelphia native, is among a growing number of cabinet secretaries and other high-level staffers leaving the administration as Rendell heads into his final two years in office. Among the recent departures were Col. Jeffrey Miller as state police commissioner and Michael Masch as budget secretary.

McGinty's resignation letter came Wednesday, the same day that Rendell - with her by his side - signed into law a bill that creates a $650 million fund to spur investment in alternative and renewable energy and provide rebates for installing solar panels in homes and businesses.

Environmentalists credit McGinty with helping transform Pennsylvania from a rust-belt state with aging and idle factories and polluting mines to one that aggressively fought to clean up the land, water and air and recruited businesses that shared those goals.

"The perception that Pennsylvania is backwards in environmental policy was widely held," said Jan Jarrett, vice president of the environmental advocacy group PennFuture. "She and the governor have transformed a smokestack state to a place where clean, renewable energy is growing and green business is coming."

McGinty's 51/2-year tenure was marked by stormy confirmation sessions in the Senate and pitched battles with Republicans and operators of the coal and manufacturing industries over efforts to institute tough air-quality standards.

She led the successful fight to limit mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and to reduce toxic emissions from cars sold in the state.

McGinty has maintained she sought to balance environmental and business interests by streamlining the permit process and bringing to Pennsylvania companies that produce renewable energy, among them global wind-energy and solar companies and major biofuel developers.

But industry leaders say dealing with the DEP under McGinty has been frustrating because of unrealistic regulations.

"Her tenure has set back the sensible, compliance-based regiment set under her predecessors," said David N. Taylor, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association.

He said McGinty had created a climate that was more punitive toward business than collaborative.

Last year, McGinty was the subject of an ethics panel review after the DEP awarded $3,700 in grants to the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, which employed her husband.

The panel found that if McGinty played a similar role in future grant-making, she would violate state ethics law. She said she would abide by the ruling and develop policies to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Under McGinty, the state adopted the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard program, which stipulates that 18 percent of all the energy generated in Pennsylvania come from clean sources by 2018.

McGinty also worked to clean up water pollution from agricultural waste and toxic mine drainage and to overhaul the state's antiquated mine safety law.

Before taking over the DEP in 2003, McGinty spent five years in the Clinton White House, where she was chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a senior environment adviser to Vice President Al Gore.

In Pennsylvania, supporters said, McGinty will leave a tangible legacy in cleaner water and reclaimed mine and industrial sites, as well as signs of a cleaner future.

"It's one thing to say someone is a transformative leader, but with Katie McGinty it's not abstract," Jarrett said. "When you see the windmills on the horizon or the solar panels on houses and businesses, you know she has made a difference in Pennsylvania."