





































Commonwealth: A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy Frontmatter


COMMONWEAL
A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and P

TH
olicy

 
 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF J. Wesley Leckrone, Widener University

 MANAGING EDITOR Michelle J. Atherton, Temple University

 BOOK REVIEW EDITOR/

 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University

 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Christopher Borick, Muhlenberg College
  Paula A. Duda Holoviak, Kutztown University
  Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., Temple University

 EDITORIAL ADVISORY 

 BOARD Bruce Caswell, Rowan University
  Beverly A. Cigler, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
  Richardson Dilworth, Drexel University
  John J. Kennedy, West Chester University
  John Kincaid, Lafayette College
  Joseph Marbach, Georgian Court University
  David Y. Miller, University of Pittsburgh
  Megan Mullin, Duke University
  Richard A. Stafford, Carnegie Mellon University

 COPY EDITOR Barbara Crawford

 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Catherine Long, Widener University

 FOUNDING EDITOR

 EMERITUS  Donald G. Tannenbaum, Gettysburg College

 EDITORS EMERITUS Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University
  Gerard J. Fitzpatrick, Ursinus College

     

Published by Temple University Press on behalf of  
The Pennsylvania Political Science Association



The Pennsylvania Political Science 
Association

Founded in 1939, the Pennsylvania Political Science Association (PPSA) 
is the nation’s oldest state political science association. Its mission has 
always been to promote scholarship, research, and the exchange of 

ideas within the Pennsylvania community of political scientists. PPSA draws 
its membership principally from the political science and public administra-
tion faculties of Pennsylvania’s public and private colleges and universities 
but also includes government professionals and faculty members from sur-
rounding states.

PPSA’s annual conference includes dozens of panelists covering a wide vari-
ety of subjects. While university faculty compose the vast majority of partici-
pants, legislators, legislative staff, executive officials, and undergraduates also 
have participated. For more information on the activities of PPSA and mem-
bership rates, please visit the association’s website at http://www.papolisci.org/.

http://www.papolisci.org/%7bCOMP


THE PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

2016–2017

PRESIDENT 
Steven Peterson
Pennsylvania State 
University, Harrisburg 

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT 
A. Lanethea Mathews-S  chultz
Muhlenberg College 

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
Michael Greenberg
Shippensburg University

    

 TREASURER
Steven B. Lem 
Kutztown University 

 SECRETARY
Paula A. Duda Holoviak
Kutztown University

 
 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

2014–2017 2015–2018 2016–2019

Michelle DeMary  
Susquehanna University

Kyle L. Kreider  
Wilkes University 

Michelle J. Atherton 
Temple University 

Heather Frederick 
Slippery Rock University 

Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr.
Temple University

Jennie Sweet-Cushman
Chatham College

 

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT 
Christopher Borick 
Muhlenberg College 

PAST PRESIDENT 
Brooke Harlowe 
Lock Haven University 

PAST PRESIDENT
Stanley Berard
Lock Haven University

EDITORIAL STAFF OF COMMONWEALTH:  

A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy

EDITOR-  IN-CHIEF   
J. Wesley Leckrone 
Widener University 

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR & EDITOR EMERITUS
Thomas J. Baldino
Wilkes University

EDITOR EMERITUS 
Gerard J. Fitzpatrick 
Ursinus College 

FOUNDING EDITOR EMERITUS
Donald G. Tannenbaum
Gettysburg College



Pennsylvania Policy Forum

C OMMONWEALTH collaborates with the Pennsylvania Policy Forum 
to plan special issues and attract high- quality content to the journal. 
The Forum is a consortium of faculty members and academic and 

policy institute leaders from Pennsylvania colleges and universities who share 
an interest in generating ideas, analyses, and symposiums that might prove 
useful to citizens, elected officials, and civic leaders in addressing major issues 
confronting the Commonwealth and its local governments. As educators who 
have helped train students for careers in public policy, members also share an 
interest in helping to improve the skills, knowledge, and tools of leaders in the 
public and civic sectors.

Members of the Forum have expertise in public policy analysis as well 
as a wide range of substantive issues, including but not limited to education, 
transportation and public infrastructure, economic development, agriculture, 
energy, elections, water policy and the environment, health care, social policy, 
urban development, emergency management, information technology, public 
finance, and constitutional law. Members also share an interest in improving 
both the policy process itself and the institutional structures through which 
issues and problems are addressed.

Forum members have contributed to public policy debates in Pennsyl-
vania, and a number have also served in state and local government and in 
nonprofit and civic organizations that engage in policy development and 
implementation. Some members of the Forum are associated with other 
academic and public policy–related organizations, but the Forum itself is 
independent of these relationships and has no formal connections to any gov-
ernment entity. Members obviously benefit from the intellectual resources 
and environments of their universities, but unless otherwise indicated, they 
do not act on behalf of their institutions when they sponsor Forum projects. 
The premise of the Forum is that through the consortium, members can 
jointly develop and sponsor nonpartisan research, symposiums, and educa-
tion and training programs of value to elected officials, civic leaders, and the 
public and thereby enhance their ability to contribute to more intelligent and 
informed policy making.



PENNSYLVANIA POLICY FORUM MEMBERSHIP (2016)

Theodore R. Alter, professor of agricultural, environmental, and regional 
economics, Pennsylvania State University

Michelle J. Atherton, associate director, Institute for Public Affairs, Temple 
University

Thomas J. Baldino, professor of political science, Wilkes University
Michael Cassidy, adjunct instructor of political science, Temple University
Beverly A. Cigler, professor of public policy and administration, Pennsylvania 

State University, Harrisburg
Richardson Dilworth, associate professor of political science and director of 

the Center for Public Policy, Drexel University
Michael R. Dimino, Sr., associate professor of law, Widener University 

Commonwealth Law School
(Chair) Paula A. Duda Holoviak, professor of political science, Kutztown 

University
Mark Alan Hughes, professor of practice at PennDesign and faculty director 

of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, University of Pennsylvania
John J. Kennedy, associate professor of political science, West Chester 

University
Michael King, adjunct professor, Albright College and Temple University, and 

associate professor, Pennsylvania State University (retired)
Robin Lauermann, professor of politics and international relations, Messiah 

College
J. Wesley Leckrone, associate professor of political science, Widener University
Nelson Lim, executive director, Fels Institute of Government, University of 

Pennsylvania
(Vice Chair) Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., director of the Institute for Public 

Affairs, Temple University
David Y. Miller, associate professor and director of the Innovation Clinic, 

Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of 
Pittsburgh

Randall M. Miller, professor of history, St. Joseph’s University
Theresa Miller, director, Institute of Politics, University of Pittsburgh
Joseph Sabino Mistick, associate professor of law, Duquesne University 

School of Law
Richard A. Stafford, distinguished service professor of public policy, Heinz 

College, Carnegie Mellon University
David B. Thornburgh, executive director of the Committee of Seventy
Craig Wheeland, associate vice president for academic affairs and professor, 

Villanova University



Contents
Volume 19, Number 1 | 2017 | ISSN 2469-  7672  

EDITOR’S NOTE

■ An Introduction to the Special Issue on Energy  
and the Environment | Christopher Borick

ARTICLES

■ Leaving Money on the Table: Pennsylvania Exceptionalism  
in Resisting Energy Severance Taxes | Rachel L. Hampton and  
Barry G. Rabe

■ Raised Awareness of Fracking in Pennsylvania | Philip J. Harold 
and Tony Kerzmann

■ The Great Divide: Public Perceptions of Shale Gas  
Extraction and Hydraulic Fracturing in Pennsylvania  
and New York | Erick Lachapelle

■ Wind Development in Pennsylvania: A Reflection on State 
Policy | Sarah Banas Mills

■ Solar Renewable Energy Credit Price Volatility  
and Investment Returns: Have Policies Stranded  
Capital Investment? | Somayeh Youssefi and Patrick L. Gurian

■ COMMONWEALTH Forum: The Politics of Science  
or the Science of Politics | John Arway




