A theater-full of residents from southwest Pennsylvania came together in the morning on Monday, July 30, 2018, for a Cabinet in your Community forum. This is an initiative from the Wolf Administration to ensure that the executive branch officials who are primarily centered in Harrisburg hear from communities across Pennsylvania to learn more about the issues that concern them. Residents are able to ask whatever questions are on their minds, although not all cabinet officials attend each event.
At this particular event, the Secretary who received the most questions was the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, Patrick McDonnell, indicating that people in this region are truly concerned about our environment. Most, if not all, questions asked of Secretary McDonnell revolved around fracking, with some people questioning its effects on air pollution through methane leaks and others asking about whether the Secretary is up-to-date on the latest report put out by the Physicians for Social Responsibility detailing the health risks of unconventional oil and gas activity.
What was abundantly clear at this forum was the fact that residents want to engage with their public officials, but, more than that, they want their concerns to be sincerely heard and addressed, not explained away and politicized. When future events are scheduled in the area, we will advertise them in our newsletter, so please make sure you keep an eye on the “Upcoming Events” section of that!
