Nearly nine months after he was appointed to serve as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Christopher Abruzzo has been appointed by the state senate 42-8. In March Republican Gov. Tom Corbett appointed Abruzzo, who was supposed to take the helm of the oil and gas regulatory agency in April, but some Democrats were angered by the appointment of a longtime government attorney who didn’t appear to share some of their environmental views. Most recently, Abruzzo served as deputy chief of staff for Corbett.

Range Resources Corp. vice president of government and regulatory affairs K. Scott Roy has been elected chairman of the Marcellus Shale Coalition‘s (MSC) board of directors for 2014. Roy previously served as MSC vice chairman and treasurer. Also elected to the MSC executive board were Exco Resources Inc. vice president Heather Lamparter (vice chair), Williams senior government affairs representative Mark Hager (treasurer) and EOG Resources Inc. vice president Gary Smith (secretary). Consol Energy Inc. COO Randy Albert had been chairman since August, when he took the helm from David Spigelmyer, who later returned to MSC as the organization’s president (see Shale Daily, Oct. 22; Aug. 29).

Harold M. Korellis retiring as chairman of Southwestern Energy Co.‘s board of directors at the company’s 2014 stockholder meeting. The board at that time intends to elect current CEO and president Steven L. Mueller as chairman. Mueller would continue as CEO. Korell has been with Southwestern for 17 years, including a decade as CEO and most recently as nonexecutive chairman.