FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 15, 2024
Media Contact: Lisa DePaoli, lisa@centerforcoalfieldjustice.org, 412-229-7116
CNX “Radical Transparency™” news release unreliable and biased, undermines objective scientific inquiry
Prioritizes CNX’s image and business goals over balanced reporting of the full range of environmental and health implications of natural gas development
Washington, PA – Yesterday, CNX Resources released a statement with the ostentatious claim that there are no public health risks that result from their fracking operations — a claim based on just nine months of air quality data selected from two of their fourteen testing locations. This flies in the face of the fact that there are active complaints against them by residents of one of these very well sites at this time. Their release is also a weak argument against one of the many peer-reviewed studies done by qualified researchers in respectable universities that strongly suggest a range of health and environmental harms that occur due to fracking.
CNX takes aim at the state-sponsored, objective research done by the University of Pittsburgh to look into the health impacts of fracking, the results of which were released one year ago. Gov. Shapiro, for his part, has not acknowledged the results of this study – which was commissioned by his predecessor – and ignores residents’ concerns and appeals to meet with him, yet comes to our region in private to flaunt a “radically transparent” working relationship with one of the offending companies, CNX.
“CNX has a ‘radically’ criminal record of submitting inaccurate data. Nothing they say should be counted on as truth. This is nothing other than an attempt to protect their image and their political relationships,” says Jodi Borello, community organizer and herself an impacted resident who testified against CNX in the 43rd and 46th Statewide Grand Jury.
CNX’s initial results from their “Radical Transparency™” program, released today, provide only data about air quality, yet there are two water complaints involving one of these sites on the PA DEP website. One family completely lost their water.
“Interviews with community members and legal appeals seem to have been forgotten in CNX’s transparency reports. It is insulting to community members who are currently fighting to get clean water to have CNX claim that there is “no public health risk.” People have reached out to CNX, DEP, and the Governor’s office asking for help, only to be met with silence. Furthermore, in this report, CNX relied solely on a handful of electronic monitoring devices that had several data gaps. To leave people out of the very study you are trying to promote is a disservice, and, at best, is misleading,” stated Ethan Story, advocacy director for the Center for Coalfield Justice.
CNX continually attacks reliable and valid data and reports that reveal the health and environmental harms of fracking. Today’s release dismisses independent studies by labeling their results as “loose” or “highly dubious” without providing comprehensive evidence to refute the claims, undermining objective scientific inquiry. The study that CNX is presently attacking involved months of community outreach and interviews to understand what conditions people have been subject to due to gas development. The study is not without its shortcomings, but anyone who knows about trustworthy and methodologically sound research knows that it is much closer to the truth than what CNX is pushing. CNX is clearly confused about what a full study and full transparency means. Finally, there are other measurements of fracking impacts beyond air quality, which is all that CNX is measuring.
Heaven Sensky, formerly on the board for the health studies that were being undertaken by the University of Pittsburgh, and organizing director at the Center for Coalfield Justice, stated that “The University of Pittsburgh study looked at nine counties, and at children who are indisputably getting sick in correlation with how close they live to a well pad. Some have passed away from those illnesses. CNX’s statement that their operations pose no public health risk is irresponsible and inconsistent with a multitude of environmental and public health research studies.”
CNX’s news release goes so far as to urge other companies to adopt CNX’s methods and advocates for public policy based on their specific data, despite obvious conflicts of interest and potentially influencing regulations to favor industry practices over broader environmental and public health concerns and serious research into the impacts of fracking.
On a mailer delivered to local mailboxes today, CNX states that “We’re continuing our commitment to protect local communities, environmental resources, and building strong relationships with our neighbors,” none of which they are actually doing. They must think that if they say something enough, whether or not there is any truth to it, that some people will believe it.
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