In response to the letter “Ramifications of DEP name change” (June 16, TribLIVE): This is a case of classic leftism. Accuse the other side of what you’re actually doing.
In my opinion, Democrats have run the state Department of Environmental Protection and feel a name change is somehow a threat to the puppet masters and environmental special interest groups that control our DEP.
Take, for example, PennFuture, which I consider to be a far-left environmental propagandist group whose mission is to end fossil fuels through strangulation by DEP regulation. The former DEP secretary, Patrick McDonnell, after serving Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, left and took an executive position with PennFuture. Former vice president of government affairs for PennFuture, Ezra Thrush, is now policy director for the current DEP. That is the very definition of a revolving door with special interests. The DEP seems to have been hijacked by environmental special interests with extremist political agendas.
Instead of working in partnership with businesses, I believe the DEP believes its mission is to prevent, harass and select which industries get to exist in Pennsylvania. Among others, they discriminate against the coal and natural gas industry, which still supplies over 90% of our electricity and thousands of middle-class jobs.
The Department of Environmental Services is more appropriate, because our government is there to serve the people, and it’s a title the current DEP should try and live up to.
Juliana Morich
Murrysville