ICN Pennsylvania - Inside Climate News

In the ‘Armpit of the Universe,’ a Window Into the Persistent Inequities of Environmental Policy

By Kiley Bense, Victoria St. Martin — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Researchers found that the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act is often a function of race and socio-economic factors. In Clairton, Pennsylvania, residents say they see that firsthand.

By Kiley Bense, Victoria St. Martin

Germaine Gooden-Patterson has lived in Clairton, Pennsylvania, for more than 15 years, but it wasn’t until she began a job as a community health worker in 2019 that she understood how much air pollution was affecting her neighbors’ lives—and her own.

Pennsylvania’s Governor Wants to Cut Power Plant Emissions With His Own Cap-and-Invest Program

By Jon Hurdle — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Gov. Josh Shapiro promises to pull the state out of a broader cap-and-invest cooperative involving 11 Northeast states, known as RGGI, if lawmakers approve his plan. But Shapiro promised to press on with his appeal of a court ruling that effectively blocked RGGI membership, until his own plan is passed.

By Jon Hurdle

Pennsylvania would run its own cap-and-invest program for cutting carbon emissions from power plants and increase its use of renewable fuels if lawmakers approve two bills outlined by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday.

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Shouts Down Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro Over a Proposed ‘Hydrogen Hub’

By Kiley Bense — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 17:20:00 +0000

Activists want more public participation in a proposal to produce hydrogen in southeastern Pennsylvania. Touted by the Biden administration as “crucial” to the nation’s climate goals, advocates fear the federally-funded project will create more pollution and further burden environmental justice communities.

By Kiley Bense

Protestors disrupted a public meeting on Monday about a federally-funded “hydrogen hub” to be located in southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware that would produce, transport and store the controversial fuel at sites across the region.

A National Tour Calling for a Reborn and Ramped Up Green New Deal Lands in Pittsburgh

By Keerti Gopal — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At stops across the country, environmental groups are joining local activists and politicians pushing for investments in union climate jobs to boost communities suffering from decades of environmental injustice.

By Keerti Gopal

In the communities most heavily impacted by the fossil fuel industry, a national movement pushing the Green New Deal is amplifying calls for government investment in climate jobs.

New Demands to Measure Emissions Raise Cautious Hopes in Pennsylvania Among Environmental Sleuths Who Monitor Fracking Sites

By Jake Bolster — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0000

The new EPA rules govern wells as well as wastewater tanks, which can emit substantial amounts of methane and volatile organic compounds.

By Jake Bolster

For the first time, Pennsylvania fracking companies are facing real-time scrutiny from federal and state regulators over emissions of methane and other harmful air pollutants at drilling sites and storage facilities for toxic wastewater left over from oil and gas extractions.

One Year Later, Pennsylvanians Living Near the East Palestine Train Derailment Site Say They’re Still Sick

By Kiley Bense — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Residents of Beaver County, many of them women and children, are suffering from alarming symptoms that began at the time of the accident—and say they’re struggling to access testing and medical guidance.

By Kiley Bense

On March 20, 2023, Hilary Flint uploaded a new video to her TikTok account. The clip starts with a close-up of her face, her cheeks flushed and her gaze trained on the camera. The post is tagged #eastpalestine. “I live in Enon Valley, Pennsylvania,” she says. “Less than five miles from the Norfolk Southern train derailment.”

To Live and Die in Philadelphia: Sonya Sanders Grew Up Next Door to a Giant Refinery. She’s Still Suffering From Environmental Trauma

By Victoria St. Martin — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Eco-anxiety, post-traumatic stress and other emotional maladies are increasing among those worried about climate change and impacted by environmental harms. The American Psychological Association defines the emerging area of research as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.”

By Victoria St. Martin

PHILADELPHIA—Sonya Sanders knows better than most the physical toll of living next door to an ecological hazard.

Q&A: New Rules in Pennsylvania Require Drillers to Disclose Toxic Chemicals Used in Fracking

Interview by Aynsley O’Neill, “Living on Earth” — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 10:05:00 +0000

But there’s one huge exception: chemicals that are deemed “trade secrets.”

Interview by Aynsley O’Neill, “Living on Earth”

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by producer Aynsley O’Neill with Kristina Marusic, a journalist for Environmental Health News. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In His First Year as Governor, Josh Shapiro Forged Alliances With the Natural Gas Industry, Angering Environmentalists Who Once Supported Him

By Kiley Bense — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 10:05:00 +0000

Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor has sought to regulate natural gas development and embrace it at the same time, a sharp contrast to his approach to fracking as attorney general.

By Kiley Bense

In June 2020, then Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro appeared at a press conference in Harrisburg to announce the findings of a two-year grand jury investigation into the state’s fracking industry. The 235-page report concluded that Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health had failed to protect residents from the worst effects of unconventional drilling.

In a Steel Town Outside Pittsburgh, an Old Fight Over Air Quality Drags On

By Kiley Bense — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000

The debate over a pollution permit in Clairton, Pennsylvania, home to the nation’s largest coke plant, pits environmental groups and residents concerned about public health against U.S. Steel and its supporters.

By Kiley Bense

When the town of Clairton, Pennsylvania, was founded a few miles south of Pittsburgh at the start of the 20th century, the only thing there was a steel mill. “At the beginning of 1901, the town of Clairton was a field,” a newspaper article from 1904 explained. “The Clairton steel mill first began operations in that year and the idea of building a town followed.”