A new analysis of fracking industry contributions to Pennsylvania state candidates and campaigns shows that drillers hold tremendous influence at the highest levels of Harrisburg politics.

Gas drillers in Pennsylvania don't pay a severance tax like they do everywhere else in the country in large part because they're allowed to donate unlimited contributions to candidates and campaigns. And while our neighbors in Maryland and New York have banned fracking, our legislature is bending over backward to deregulate the industry as fast as they can. It's no coincidence that the two Pennsylvania state lawmakers receiving the most fracking cash this election cycle are Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai and Republican Senate President Joe Scarnati. They are the two most powerful people in the legislature -- they decide which bills get voted on and which bills die without a hearing.

Last November, Speaker Turzai helped push for two amendments that would have crippled the ability of our state's Department of Environmental Protection to oversee the fracking industry. That same month, gas companies wrote him a $10,000 check.

We need to get big money out of politics, and we can do it if we all speak up.

Add your name to the petition to call for campaign contribution limits.

"We call on you to stop the influx of campaign contributions to candidates and campaigns in Pennsylvania -- especially from the fracking industry. Given the natural gas industry's years of interference intended to block a fair severance tax and cripple the state's ability to protect communities from drilling disasters, the time has come to check the industry's dangerous levels of influence in Harrisburg."

Organized by:
Conservation Voters of PA
Keystone Progress
March on Harrisburg
One Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center