Ridge Brings Team to Boost Shale Drilling
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
3 August 2010
By Tom Barnes, Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- Pushing for more Marcellus Shale drilling comes at a
hefty price.
Former Gov. Tom Ridge and a team of officials at his two consulting
firms will be paid $900,000 for a one-year contract as strategic
advisers to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, coalition spokesman Travis
Windle said Monday.
One of the ex-governor's firms, Ridge Global, will earn $50,000 a
month, starting now, and another, the Ridge Policy Group, will get
$25,000 a month, for 12 months. The coalition announced Friday that Mr.
Ridge would take the industry lead in Marcellus issues.
Besides Mr. Ridge, Duncan Campbell, who was his chief of staff when he
was the U.S. homeland security secretary several years ago, will work
with him at Ridge Global, Mr. Windle said. They will do "public
outreach and education" about the importance of the natural gas pumped
from underground areas of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, as well as
"coalition building," advising the Marcellus group and speaking at
public forums.
Mr. Windle said that Mr. Ridge will not be a registered lobbyist in
Pennsylvania and will not lobby state legislators about a proposed
natural gas tax or other subjects. Gov. Ed Rendell wants legislators to
approve a severance tax on the thousands of cubic feet of gas taken
from the underground shale, hoping it will raise at least $100 million
a year for the state.
Handling the chore of lobbying the Legislature will be two former aides
from Mr. Ridge's days as governor (1995-2001), Mark Holman and Mark
Campbell, no relation to Duncan Campbell.
Mr. Holman and Mark Campbell, are part of the legislative advocacy
group.
"That is where the lobbying will be," Mr. Windle said. "The former
governor and his team bring an assembly of ... experts to assist our
efforts to move forward" with developing the natural gas industry in
the state.
He said Mr. Ridge and his aides "will work alongside our member
companies to help Pennsylvanians better understand the tremendous
opportunity the responsible development of Marcellus Shale represents
to the state."
The coalition includes more than 100 companies, "the vast majority of
shale gas producers in Pennsylvania," Mr. Windle said, along with
pipeline firms, environmental engineers and consultants, legal experts
and construction contractors.
A year from now, the coalition will decide whether to retain the Ridge
firms for more work.
Bureau Chief Tom Barnes: tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 1-717-787-4254.