In February, Governor Tom Corbett announced his intention to balance the state budget, in part, using millions of dollars in projected revenues from new oil-and-gas drilling leases in state parks and forests. It was the first public acknowledgment of Corbett’s plans to lift a 2010 moratorium on leasing.
But records uncovered in an investigation by 90.5 WESA and the Allegheny Front suggest the issue may have been under active discussion much earlier.
Read more of this special report at the website of our partner The Allegheny Front. This is the third in a four-part series examining the influence of industry money on Pennsylvania's oversight of the natural gas boom.
