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.
Former Cabot Oil and Gas will pay for new public water system in Dimock
It started with a drinking water well explosion on New Year’s Day 2009. Dimock, a small community in Susquehanna County, gained national attention when the 2010 documentary “Gasland” showed residents lighting their tap water on fire. Since unconventional gas drilling, known as fracking, took off in the late 2000s in Pennsylvania and neighboring states, the…
2022 Year in Review
For the first time since 2020, we were able to engage more directly with our community – and our engagement with residents in Washington and Greene Counties has more than doubled. It is not surprising to see more people getting involved as in this past year we have seen over 10,000 acres of new coal…
Thanks To Generous Support From Our Community, Residents In New Freeport Have Clean Water For The Holidays
On Saturday, November 20, 2022, several members of CCJ staff helped to distribute water to residents of New Freeport who have been without safe, clean drinking water since June. This was possible because of the incredible support from all of the people who donated cases and jugs of water or who made monetary donations to…
No Matter Who is Elected to Office, Our Work Continues
One thing is clear after this past election: Your votes do matter. However, the fight to protect our communities and health from pollution never stops at the polls. CCJ will be here with you, continuing to support our communities and advocating for true economic solutions while protecting our health, environment, and local economy. With Josh…
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…
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…