The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled a Customer Experience Management Advisory Council that is intended to “evaluate DEP’s customer service experience.” The new program is part of a ‘modernization’ push that has been aimed at speeding up permit approvals. 

In response, Food & Water Watch Eastern Pennsylvania Organizer Ginny Marcille-Kerslake released the following statement: 

“The Shapiro administration continues to find new ways to disappoint the public. This window dressing advisory council is yet another sign that Governor Shapiro intends to promote the interests of private corporations instead of pushing policies that protect the rest of us.

“The DEP betrayed the people of Dimock by allowing fracking to return to a community that suffered at the hands of drilling companies, and Governor Shapiro has done nothing to set things right. He stood side by side with fracking company CNX to unveil a toothless and embarrassing monitoring scheme, delivering a public relations victory for a serial polluter. And he has championed hydrogen hubs that will only increase drilling and fracking in our state.

“Pennsylvanians don’t need business-friendly ‘modernization’ schemes, and we don’t need a new customer service council. We need a governor who will use his power to protect us from the fracking and pipeline corporations  that have scarred our communities, poisoned our water, fouled our air, and jeopardize the health and safety of Pennsylvanians.”