PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s top environmental official says the state will use tough enforcement when it comes to regulating natural gas drilling and that much of the opposition to drilling is “not based on science or fact.”

Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer told a natural gas industry conference in Philadelphia today much of the opposition is “ideologically based” and “not based on science or fact.” Krancer says Pennsylvania has the model program for oversight in the industry.

Krancer spoke to the Shale Gas Insight conference in place of Gov. Tom Corbett, who had to cancel at the last minute because of dangerous flooding conditions in parts of the state.

Activist groups protesting the conference say drilling is tainting wells and causing a public health hazard.