At the end of the day, Rendell and some of his top people are more than happy to sell out the health and welfare of Pennsylvania. Just as for his GOP counterparts, "Serving" as governor turns out to have meant exploiting public office as an egotistical power trip, followed immediately by greed and profiteering.
Rendell is the antithesis of Jimmy Carter. Rendell could have been a strong voice of sanity and decency in terms of regulating and taxing fracking. It's been a shocking disappointment to learn of his pro-fracking activities. It's not like he and his federal judge wife did not already have plenty of income to live a very comfortable life. (As far as I know they're still legally married, although they announced a formal separation as soon as he left office.)
Bottom line, Rendell sold out the principles of being a Democrat and a liberal, let alone a progressive.
Some excerpts from the OP's link, followed by some more details from the Post-Gazette's coverage:
"Ed Rendell was governor from 2003-2011, at the outset of the Marcellus shale boom. During his time in office, he opposed a moratorium on fracking and leased more than 140,000 acres of state forest land for natural gas extraction. He then issued moratorium on leasing state forests at the close of his term. Rendell -- and former DEP Secretary McGinty – are now operating partners of Element Partners, a private equity firm with investments in natural gas companies such as Environmental Drilling Systems, 212 Resources and Agility Fuel Systems. Rendell is a senior advisor at Greenhill and Co., an investment bank that advises on mergers and acquisitions, including those in the natural gas industry -- such as Kinder Morgan’s 2012 acquisition of Tennessee Gas Pipeline. Emails obtained by EnergyWire also show that Rendell was a spokesman for Range Resources. That relationship has not been confirmed.
K. Scott Roy was Rendell’s executive chief of staff, and left that post to work for Range Resources. He’s currently also the treasurer for the Marcellus Shale Coalition.
Her(Sarah Batistis) husband, Eric Battisti, was a senior deputy secretary for legislative affairs, also under Rendell. Now at Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney's oil and gas practice, he works as a government relations professional and lobbies for EQT, Koch Companies and other natural gas industry companies.Ed Rendell is a partner in a private equity firm with investments in fracking services companies. He recently lobbied on behalf of Range Resources in a dispute with federal regulators in Texas.
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From the Post-Gazette:
Ed Rendell is a partner in a private equity firm with investments in fracking services companies. He recently lobbied on behalf of Range Resources in a dispute with federal regulators in Texas.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/frackings-revolving-door-draws-a-warning-678701/#ixzz2N7cMPcbD
• Sarah Battisti, Mr. Rendell's deputy chief of staff, who quit in 2010 to work for BG Group, a British gas company with Marcellus Shale gas holdings, where she was director of government and public affairs and co-chaired the Marcellus Shale Coalition's legislative committee. Ms. Battisti now works at the Bravo Group, a public relations company where she is head of the government relations section of the firm's energy practice. She is a registered lobbyist for The Energy Association of Pennsylvania, America's Natural Gas Alliance, Southwest Energy and UGI Energy Services.
• Eric Battisti, Sarah's husband and Mr. Rendell's senior deputy secretary for legislative affairs, works as a government relations specialist in Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney's oil and gas practice, where he lobbies for gas industry clients EQT, Williams Cos., NRG and Koch Cos.
• Barbara Sexton was DEP executive deputy secretary and helped persuade then-Secretary John Hanger to cut the state's Conservation District offices out of the gas drilling permit approval process because they were an obstacle to quick permit approval. She held the department's second-highest office from 2001 until she left in 2010 to take a job with Chesapeake Energy as director of governmental affairs.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/frackings-revolving-door-draws-a-warning-678701/#ixzz2N7WikCOp
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