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.
The Path to Become the President
In past years, after election night, there has been minimal discussion about the process our nation has set in place for the newly elected President to take office. Yet, this year has placed this process on the front page of the news. This is a quick reference tool that you can use to see how…
Harrisburg: Burning Our Trash is NOT Recycling!
Incinerator (waste-to-energy plant; waste incineration plant), Industry park Höchst, Hesse, Germany.. Norbert Nagel, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons When we hear the term “recycling,” many of us think about glass, paper, or plastic being sent to a facility to be broken down and then re-constructed into another product. However, House Rep. Ryan Mackenzie,…
What is RGGI and How Will It Benefit Our State?
Photo credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (https://bit.ly/3nDFILV) Pennsylvania is the third-largest greenhouse gas polluting state and has the fifth dirtiest power plant sector in the nation. To deal with this problem, the Wolf administration has proposed a rule to cut carbon pollution from electric power plants. This would link Pennsylvania to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI,”…
An Update on our Defending Our Democracy Program
From left: Mark Dugan, Phoenix White, Paul Fedore, Prem Rajgopal, and Jeromy Mackey. Our work started with an issue-based deep canvas of residents in Washington and Greene Counties. We asked questions about environmental, economic, and racial justice, texting over 10,000 people with an average response rate of 25%. From those, we have routinely engaged with…
Senate Bill 790 Will Bring Long-Lasting and Costly Harm to our State (Update)
[This blog was originally posted on March 23, 2020, and has been updated.] Introduced by Senator Joe Scarnati, SB 790 provides economic benefits to the conventional oil and gas well drillers and places the public and the state’s environment at risk. It does this by relaxing the environmental standards currently in place to protect our…
CCJ Post-Election Statement
This year has been one that no one has expected, from our communities trying to survive during a global health crisis to the magnifying glass that has been placed on our communities in Pennsylvania during the 2020 Presidential election cycle. For the first time in decades, we had to wait patiently to see the results…
Results of the Questionnaire for the PA 14th Congressional District Candidates
The Center for Coalfield Justice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that, among other things, engages in nonpartisan voter education. The purpose of this questionnaire is to guarantee that voters are informed about all PA 14th Congressional District candidates’ positions on issues that are relevant to our community. The questionnaire is not an endorsement for any…
CCJ Organizing Fellow, Prem, joins allies in DC to protect our rights
This is the 20th installment in our What’s on your mind? blog series and was written by Organizing Fellow Prem Rajgopal. I was in town to join organizers from the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and various other organizations to protest the hearing for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. We…
Cecil Township Holds Additional Oil and Gas Ordinance Workshop
This blog was written by Heaven Sensky, Community Organizer, and Mark Dugan, Organizing Fellow for CCJ, after they attended the latest meeting about oil and gas ordinances in Cecil Township. If you or someone you know has concerns about the current and future oil and gas development in Cecil Township, the Center for Coalfield Justice,…
September 2020 Coalfield Review
READ OUR MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER, WHICH WILL UPDATE YOU ON OUR WORK, CURRENT ACTION ITEMS, AND UPCOMING EVENTS. IF THERE IS ANY OTHER INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE, PLEASE LET US KNOW. Our 5th Annual Fall Fundraiser is October 16th! Republicans in the state legislature have taken swift action to draft a House Resolution that…