DV Journal

The Republican hoping to unseat Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Delaware/Philadelphia) thinks she and President Joe Biden are getting the natural gas issue wrong.

Republican David Galluch says he will fight to not only encourage the sector but expand it.

“We have more natural gas under our feet than Saudi Arabia has oil,” says Galluch. “Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel there is, and if you liquefy it, it gets even cleaner.”

And, he notes, it keeps hundreds of thousands of people working across the state.

“The job multiplier for the energy sector is 18.3. That means for every one job we create in the energy sector, we create 18.3 jobs downstream,” says Galluch. “We are talking construction, manufacturing, high-skill, high-productivity, high wage enhancing employment, a lot of it union and skilled labor.”

Biden has pushed for what he calls “good-paying union jobs.” Still, the president’s critics say his energy and environment plans are threatening union jobs. Many of the workers impacted by Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline were union jobs, for example, part of a package of anti-oil and gas policies Biden put into place when he first took office.

“There is nothing wrong with investing in and developing alternative forms of energy,” said Galluch. “But if we are doing so at the expense and well-being of working families or driving up the price of fossil fuels to wean people onto different sorts of energy production, I do not think that is the right answer,” says Galluch. “Putting working families through a world of hurt in this inflationary environment more generally is not the right answer.”

Pointing to Scanlon’s voting record, Galluch added she has been against the energy sector from the very beginning.

“Not just her voting record, but even her lack of advocacy I should say for an energy producer in our own district,” Galluch noted. “Monroe Energy in Trainer supports the employment of about 9,000 people in our region and they are really being hurt by a broken regulation called the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).”

Scanlon–in office since 2019–has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, and the AFL-CIO. She voted for the Build Back Better Act, which includes multiple bans on drilling and energy development while spending more than half a trillion dollars on green energy plans.

Neither Scanlon’s office nor her campaign responded DVJ’s emails seeking comment. Galluch said he was not surprised by Scanlon’s silence.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.)

“A representative who valued Monroe Energy’s presence in the district would have been lobbying the Biden administration to alter the terms of the RFS, but the Biden administration kept the RFS,” said Galluch. “The administration renewed it last week in its current form, which puts 9,000 of those jobs in jeopardy, so I think Congresswoman Scanlon’s lack of action and lack of public advocacy for changing the RFS says all you need to know about her stance on energy.”

Monroe Energy may not be the only thing up for debate in this election. A $6.4 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal is proposed for the city of Chester. If constructed, the plant would provide more job opportunities for working people and families in the Fifth District. Penn LNG is responsible for the project and claims the operation will be “the greenest and cleanest” export facility of its kind in the nation.

“People in the community of Chester should have a say,” Galluch noted. “We need to openly debate this, it should not be done behind the scenes, and it has to be a transparent process.”

Still, Galluch said that, “If we make the case properly” and show the economic benefits, people will see the positives of having the LNG plant.

“We know as our own energy production has been curtailed, the reliance of our allies on our foes for energy, specifically Russia, has put them in a very vulnerable position,” Galluch, a Navy veteran, said.“So, I think if we explain to people, ‘Look, there are safe ways to ensure that we do not pollute the environment, we do not make a community unsafe, that we are going to benefit from it economically, and then we’re going to benefit from it from a national perspective,’ I think people are going to see that this is a step in the right direction for us.”

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No one should take joy in the misfortune of others. That is a tenet of many of the world’s great religions, including my own. “Do Unto Others.” “My Brother’s Keeper.” “What Would Jesus Do?”

But it’s unreasonable to expect human beings, imperfect as we are, to be completely impervious to the irony that fate serves up when someone who worked so hard against efforts to protect the public from crime finds herself keyless, carless, and alone on a South Philly sidewalk.

I’m talking about U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, who was the victim of a carjacking less than a mile from my office. It happened in broad daylight, after she’d participated in a meeting with constituents (her district includes a Democrat-friendly gerrymandered sliver of the city).

As she was walking back to her car at FDR Park, armed men approached her, stole her keys, and made off with her car. Her personal possessions were in it, including a cellphone and laptop. The police were mobilized and due to their usual exceptional efforts, the congresswoman’s car was retrieved in Delaware a few hours later.

Though I disagree with her politics, I’m happy Rep. Scanlon was unharmed. No decent person, however partisan, wishes harm on a fellow human being — a cultural norm Democrats largely abandoned during the Trump presidency, alas.

But there is a kernel of truth in the suggestion that perhaps those quick to embrace the BLM “defund the police” rhetoric should not be surprised when the harsh realities of the street hit them right in the keyring. As she watched the crooks abscond with her Acura, you have to wonder if she didn’t sense the irony as well.

Scanlon was a regular at Black Lives Matter rallies across the region, marching alongside posters that labeled law enforcement as racist. Consider that just a few months ago, when the streets filled with protestors after the death of George Floyd, Scanlon tweeted the following from her official congressional account:

“We have seen too many lives taken and too many communities devastated by police brutality and racial profiling. Action is long overdue. @HouseDemocrats are fighting for REAL reform in our country’s policing departments.  #JusticeInPolicing.”

From Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon’s Facebook page, a BLM rally she attended in Collingdale, Pa.

This is the typical passive-aggressive tweet of someone who isn’t explicitly calling the police racist, but who is pretty much following the script of “Police Bad, Communities of Color Sad.”  It’s neither original, nor particularly incendiary, which is the usual modus operandi of Scanlon, my congresswoman.

This tweet is a reminder of the mindset that so many Democrats, even the more moderate and low-key ones, have with respect to criminal justice.  There are pictures of Mary Gay smiling alongside DA Larry Krasner, who has presided over nearly 600 deaths in one calendar year in the city of Philadelphia. I’m not entirely certain, but it’s a good bet that at least 90 percent of those deaths were of people of color, and an even higher percentage involved civilians killing other civilians.

The “police brutality and racial profiling” trope pushed by Scanlon’s progressive allies offers no comfort to the grieving families at our local funeral homes.

The congresswoman made sure to thank the police who assisted her in the aftermath of the ordeal, which was the least that she could do. I doubt that any of those police officers wanted — or expected — a thank you. I also doubt that any of them checked her voting record or her rhetoric before rushing to her aid in South Philadelphia.  They did their job, a job made infinitely more difficult by people like Mary Gay Scanlon, Larry Krasner, Jim Kenney, and the loudmouths on Philadelphia City Council who have an inbred, innate animus toward policing in general, and certain police officers in particular.

The phrase “defund the police” turned out to be a huge mistake for Democrats. Now they’re trying to pivot to an explanation that what they “really” meant was a redistribution of resources to social workers, educators, homeless advocates, etc.

In the end, it adds up to the same things: Fewer cops, more crime, less security, more victims.

I wonder how Rep. Scanlon would have felt if a, instead of a cop, a social worker had rushed to her side at FDR Park? Or if a homeless advocate had been sent to search for her car, or a diversity instructor was tracking her assailants?  I suppose we’ll never know.

But of course, we do.