Students, Rep. Mike Doyle discuss politics over breakfast

Pitt students assembled in the William Pitt Union Thursday to ask state Rep. Mike Doyle, who… Pitt students assembled in the William Pitt Union Thursday to ask state Rep. Mike Doyle, who represents Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, about the economy and other legislation currently on the table as time ticks down for the 111th Congress.

“It’s silly season,” Doyle said to the crowd. “So a lot of people in my party are afraid to do anything.”

About 50 undergraduate and graduate students came out to the fifth GPSA- and SGB-sponsored Pancakes and Politics gathering in the Union’s Lower Lounge. They asked questions about Marcellus Shale gas drilling, immigration reform, same-sex marriage and Internet neutrality.

When Congress comes back from recess on Sept. 13, much of the focus will be on the economy, Doyle said. But there’s one subject that Doyle prefers his colleagues not to do anything about — the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy.

The tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this year, could help relieve the national deficit, Doyle said.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and GPSA president Nila Devanath introduced Doyle at the morning meeting. They talked about his history in Pittsburgh, adding perspective to some of his remarks.

Doyle, who is running for re-election against Republican Melissa Haluszczak and Green Party candidate Ed Bortz, grew up in Swissvale and remembers Pittsburgh’s reputation as a dirty, industrial city. Now, he said, Pittsburgh is making its name in other ways.

“We really have the technology to become the Silicon Valley of energy technology,” he said.

Doyle believes that gas drilling in Marcellus Shale could make the transition to cleaner technology smoother. He emphasized that environmental damage should be minimized.

To help ensure that goal is reached, Doyle believes money from the proposed severance tax on gas drilling should go to the Department of Environmental Protection to help police the drilling sites. Money might also go to local municipalities where drilling equipment could damage roads.

Recently, the topic of gas drilling has raised questions about water contamination, noise disturbances and air pollution. Doyle said that transparency is key in avoiding these problems.

He expects companies to post on the Department of Environmental Protection’s website the chemicals they use to break open, or “frack,” the shale formation.

Former GPSA president Daniel Jimenez also raised the question of Internet neutrality.

Talk that Google and Verizon could prioritize certain content for users if the content owners agreed to pay premiums and fees has some in the city worried, Jimenez said.

Doyle said he opposes this compromise of Net neutrality, adding that preference of wireless or wired access is “like the proverb of splitting a baby.”

Doyle was also the guest for the first Pancakes and Politics last fall. The hot issue at that time was health care reform. The perennial issues of same-sex marriage, extreme bipartisanship and immigration returned again this year, but with less emphasis.