Asked why, he said only: "Going would have been the wrong thing to do. . . . It would be better for everybody involved if the law was changed to prohibit offering these types of trips."
He would not give any more detail. Consol officials declined to comment.
The offer to Hanger "just underlies the arrogance of the energy industry," said Eric Epstein, a Harrisburg good-government advocate and founder of RockTheCapital.com.
"That you would have the gall to approach the head of the DEP with Super Bowl tickets - that is absolutely over the top," Epstein said.
Though Hanger turned the company down, Consol paid for two Pennsylvania lawmakers to watch the Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals that year in Tampa, Fla.: then-Rep. Timothy Solobay (D., Washington) and Rep. Paul Costa (D., Allegheny). Solobay is now a state senator.
And this month, when the Steelers again made it to the Super Bowl to face the Green Bay Packers, Consol flew Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) to the Dallas area for the game. The company also paid for his hotel and game ticket.
Scarnati has said that he will reimburse the company out of his own pocket for his accommodations and ticket, and out of his campaign fund for the plane ride - and that he had planned to do so from the start.
Consol, in a brief statement, said last week that it had had several guests at the Super Bowl this year, and that the expenses would be reported on its next lobbying-disclosure report. It would not identify its other guests.
Consol's 2009 offer for free Super Bowl trips came as Rendell was preparing to announce plans for a tax, for the first time, on the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, the vast rock formation that underlies three-quarters of the state.
Rendell's tax proposal fizzled that year - and the year after that. Pennsylvania remains the largest natural-gas-producing state without such a tax.
