Our blogs are written by the staff of the Center for Coalfield Justice, with an occasional guest post. The most recent post appears on top, and others show up below in order of publishing date. You can receive the blogs in your inbox by signing up for our mailing list. Once per month we publish a newsletter, which contains most of the blog posts.
Add Your Voice to Make Sure Senator Manchin’s Gifts to the Fossil Fuel Industry Don’t Get Delivered This Holiday Season!
Late this summer, we asked our members to join us in Washington, D.C, to rally against a dirty side deal made between Democratic leadership and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. The deal for Senator Manchin’s vote on the Inflation Reduction Act was to attach dangerous changes to our permitting system to a must-pass bill that funds…
Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub in Western Pennsylvania Will Keep the State Dependent on Fossil Fuels for Decades
Pennsylvania state legislators, Governor Wolf, and the fossil fuel industry and their allies worked behind the scenes for months on two pieces of legislation to ensure Pennsylvania will be home to a Regional “Clean” Hydrogen Hub. One bill gives billions of dollars to the fossil fuel industry through the middle of the century, while the…
Washington County Continues to Expand Broadband Service
Washington County is continuing to expand internet service in hopes that, ultimately, the entire county can access it. The latest phase of the Broadband Initiative plan will earmark $50 million over the next six to nine months to connect 5,000 homes, schools, and businesses to internet services. Thirty million of that is coming from the…
Donate Today to the New Freeport Water Drive
New Freeport, a community in Greene County, has been without safe, clean drinking water for over four months. In June, a shale gas well in the area had a frack out, which occurred when the chemicals pumped into the well to fracture the shale and release gas instead entered an abandoned well. Dozens of households…
Brief Update on Funding to Plug Orphaned and Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells
Pennsylvania has at least 200,000 orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells, which each leak up to 419 pounds of methane annually. Their operators left these wells unplugged after extraction, and, usually, it becomes up to the State to plug them using taxpayer money. To help cover the enormous cost, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs…
Halloween Family Movie Night was Fun!
The Center for Coalfield Justice hosted a Halloween Family Movie Night on October 8th at Firefly Gardens in downtown Washington. Local teens from the Teen Center joined us, as did younger children and grandchildren of our members. Our evening started with a costume contest which had three categories: Scariest, Most Creative, and Best Overall. Everyone…
A report back from our first Harvest Festival
We celebrated Fall and the beauty of Washington County on October 16th for our first annual Harvest Festival; it was a lovely Fall day spent with friends. We enjoyed a variety of warm homemade soups, homestyle dishes, and cozy drinks, and topped it off with fireside s’mores. There were plenty of things to do: We…
Gov. Wolf’s Proposed Backroom Tax Breaks for Oil and Gas Would Cost Taxpayers Billions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 26, 2022 Contact: Virginia Alvino Young, virginia@sequalconsulting.com GOV. WOLF’S PROPOSED BACKROOM TAX BREAKS FOR OIL AND GAS WOULD COST TAXPAYERS BILLIONS —– The record-breaking subsidies for an infeasible hydrogen hub won’t create jobs or wealth for the communities most harmed by fracking. HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania —— Pennsylvania state leaders are working…
Tell Our Elected Officials to Let Community In – No Backroom Deals on Hydrogen!
Governor Wolf, Harrisburg legislators, and the fossil fuel industry are working together behind closed doors to spend billions of Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars advancing policies that would subsidize the production of blue hydrogen. [The time for this action has passed. We’re leaving the blog for educational purposes] Say NO to Billion-Dollar Backroom Hydrogen Deals! “Clean hydrogen”…
Remembering and Honoring a Coal Miner’s Daughter – as an Oil-and-Gas Worker’s Daughter
This is the 24th installment in our What’s on your mind? blog series and was written by CCJ Community Organizer Tonya Yoders. Have something on your mind? Write about it! Please read this blog for more information. Growing up in rural Appalachia, on a dirt road in a single-wide trailer, forty-five minutes from the nearest grocery store, I…