Gov. Tom Corbett today announced his pick to run the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which oversees Marcellus Shale drilling on state land, as Richard J. Allan, whose family owns a scrap metal recycling business. We can bet that the state Democrats are already firing up their press release machine from reading these two grafs in the PG breaking news story by (newbie) Laura Olson and Don Hopey:

Mr. Allan is the nephew of Pat Solano, former Luzerne County Republican chairman and a power broker in the state's northeastern GOP politics. His wife, Patricia, was recently named policy director for the Department of Environmental Protection.

He contributed $2,150 to Mr. Corbett during the last campaign cycle, according to the Department of State's campaign finance database. He also was a member of Mr. Corbett's transition team for energy and environmental issues.