SHARON — In the weeks leading up to the November election, gas company political action committees, industry executives and representatives of businesses serving the burgeoning drilling industry in Pennsylvania poured more than $180,000 in the campaign coffers of the Republican candidate for attorney general.

It was not the industry’s first venture into spending heavily in a campaign.

Watchdog groups claim that over the years the industry has expanded its footprint in Pennsylvania, drilling companies have spent millions of dollars on campaign donations.

Gas money went to a number of politicians who won election and then proceeded to set policy that has been friendly to the gas industry. Headlining that group is the governor Tom Corbett, who steadfastly refused to agree to any policy that would tax the gas drilling industry, opting only to support the addition of impact fees.

But in the attorney general’s race, the gas money didn’t help.

Voters elected Attorney General Kathleen Kane, the first Democrat to ever win election as attorney general in Pennsylvania. And Kane, as a candidate had promised to fight for more money to devote enforcement of environmental law to monitor the gas industry in Pennsylvania.

Kane won 56 percent of the vote.

“It makes sense that the gas companies would be spending their money on (Freed),” said Joshua McNeil, executive director of the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. “That’s why we endorsed Kathleen Kane. She promised to beef up enforcement of the natural gas industry.”

A spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the leading gas industry lobbying group in Pennsylvania, said the organization cannot make political contributions and the organization would not try to explain why some of the gas companies that are part of the coalition would have supported one candidate or another. One-third of the companies represented on the coalition’s board of directors donated to the campaign of Republican attorney general David Freed.  

A spokesman for Chesapeake Energy said that the gas companies' PACs are merely trying to help candidates that will support the responsible growth of the industry.

"Chesapeake’s federal and state political action committees seek to identify well-informed, principled leaders on matters of domestic energy policy and support their efforts to promote a strong, clean energy agenda with an emphasis on natural gas," said company spokesman Matt Sheppard.

Chesapeake gave $10,000 to the Freed campaign.

It was not just big gas companies that were putting the money in the race. Donors included a number of businesses that have been identified by the Corbett Administration as businesses that have thrived thanks to their success developing relationships with the gas industry.



Barry Kauffman executive director of Common Cause the said that his organization is concerned about the influence of corporate money in the political and justice systems.

“The attorney general will determine which laws to enforce. The legal process is something (gas companies) want to invest in,” Kauffman said.

“If you go to all the fundraiser, you develop a relationship with the attorney general who then will have to make decisions about whether to prosecute violations of the environmental law or settle, whether to go after the low-hanging fruit or give a slap on the wrist,” Kauffman said.

Common Cause and the Pennsylvania Conservation Voters organization released a study last summer that identified $8 million in campaign donations by the gas drilling industry targeting lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett since 2000. The campaign spending peaked in 2010, the year Corbett was elected. That year, the gas industry donated $1.6 million to candidates.

The new analysis of gas drilling industry campaign contributions made between Sept. 19 and the Nov. 6 election includes donations made by political action committees associated with gas drilling companies, their executives, and businesses and executives of businesses that have publicly identified themselves as being involved in serving the gas drilling industry. Kauffman noted that because the newspaper’s analysis focuses on entities that have been public about their role in the gas drilling industry, the estimates may not include all of the donors with ties to the drilling industry.

“The fact of the matter is there is a lot of activity going on and more problems are going to come to light,” Kauffman said.