Heinz Endowments Cuts Ties to Controversial Drilling Group

The Heinz Endowments has ended financial support for an alliance of energy firms and mainstream environmental groups that aimed to establish standards for natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania, severing a connection that was widely blamed for recent upheaval at the philanthropy, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette write.

Philadelphia’s William Penn Foundation, which provided a $50,000 start-up grant to the Center for Sustainable Shale Development, is also no longer a funder, said Susan LeGros, the center’s executive director. “They both decided to go in a different direction,” she said.

A Heinz Endowments spokeswoman declined to comment. The Pittsburgh-based fund came in for criticism from some green activists for its backing of the center, which sought to develop environmentally sound practices for tapping gas reserves in Pennsylvania’s shale fields.

The controversy was viewed by many observers as a catalyst for the recent departure of former Heinz President Robert Vagt, who had longtime links to the oil and gas industry. His exit followed the dismissal last year of the foundation’s environmental chief and communications director.

>Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article on foundations’ split response to the dispute over natural-gas drilling.