Citizen Shale

08/11/2026

Perhaps Governor Wes Moore would join Gov. Spanberger in this intervention?

Keep in mind the number of Maryland citizens who will benefit from NextEra's proposed MARL Transmission Line blasting through farms, backyards, and protected wild lands is precisely zero.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19AVwSMBP1/

I have serious questions about what this deal would mean, and I intend to get answers.

07/30/2026

IF YOU RECALL: Please comment and share if you have ever been in a public meeting or legislative hearing at which a representative of the fracking industry assured attendees that shale gas operations cannot communicate with other wells, or with water sources.

Thank you to all who worked for years to prevent this from happening in Mountain Maryland.

From the story: In 2024 the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, a body of industry experts that oversees regulatory appeals, “explicitly confirmed” that brine was migrating underground, according to Cory Haydocy, an attorney who served as the commission’s executive director until 2023.

“The state and industry have possessed definitive proof for years that these injection wells were threatening the surrounding geology,” Mr. Haydocy said.
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In 2024 the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, a body of industry experts that oversees regulatory appeals, “explicitly confirmed” that brine was migrating underground, according to Cory Haydocy, an attorney who served as the commission’s executive director until 2023.

“The state and industry have possessed definitive proof for years that these injection wells were threatening the surrounding geology,” Mr. Haydocy said.
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Earlier this year, a lawsuit brought by Buckeye Environmental Network, an environmental advocacy organization, and Earthjustice, an environmental law group, challenged the proposed wells outside Marietta, all of which belong to DeepRock Disposal Solutions. Lawyers argue that the state didn’t follow the proper rules for issuing the permits. A lawyer for DeepRock said the permits should be upheld.

And in July, state regulators said that four injection wells in Washington County had shut down, including one owned by DeepRock outside Marietta, after regulators determined that fluid and high pressures found at oil and gas wells like Mr. Wilson’s “could only be caused by nearby injection wells.”

The state is a major importer of fracking wastewater, which gets pumped underground but doesn’t always stay there. The city of Marietta is fighting back.

07/30/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BJBkY5qYH/

To operate their new, massive gas-fired power plant, Homer City Redevelopment is proposing to discharge 6.84 million gallons per day into Blacklick Creek, a trout stocking fishery. The 4.4-gigawatt power plant is being constructed to power a proposed data center campus.

Join MWA and Concerned Residents of Western PA to demand that DEP host a public hearing for the proposed wastewater discharge permit, and ask them to hold an informational session to explain the permit to residents before accepting testimony. Let them know that you recreate in and near Blacklick Creek - such as fishing, boating, or walking along the Ghost Town Trail - and the creek's health is important to you!

Comments and requests for a public hearing should be emailed to [email protected] by August 10, 2026.

07/24/2026

HAND IN HAND: Why does the fracking industry love AI Data Centers? Not just because they have so much in common! Rapid buildout of Data Centers is a fast way to shore up demand for fracked shale gas, even as regular consumers are switching and saving with solar.

Learn more at this webinar!

Join us for a discussion of how the data center buildout proposed for Pennsylvania will be fueled by more fracking and additional gas power plants. Learn how…

07/14/2026

In Frederick and Carroll Counties, local officials lost seats to data center opponents.

From the story: It’s coming from everywhere. It's red and blue, and it's not subtle. It's hard to get everyone in one small town to agree on facts. And yet — organically, unplanned — everywhere across the country, people have made up their minds that they hate data centers — and now we see that they're voting on that.

Frustrations about proposed data center developments in some counties led to the ouster of local politicians during last month’s primary election, in what observers say may be the first wave of an issue that is uniting voters from across the political spectrum.

07/09/2026

IT'S COMPLICATED: EQT continues to produce shale gas without a local permit at a massive fracking site in a rural/residential area about 45 minutes north of Garrett County.

From the story: “Any time you see an appellate court saying something and you see it being ignored, that’s a rule of law concern, in my opinion, that everybody should be thinking about and could impact anybody down the road.” –Joshua Ash, University of Pittsburgh School of Law

As EQT seeks permit approval to keep their Elizabeth Township fracking wells running, some residents say the risks outweigh the benefits of the project.

06/17/2026

STATE APPELLATE COURT OVERTURNS DNR DECISION!
From the story: J. Dirk Schwenk of Annapolis- based Baylaw, LLC, he said on Tuesday that the legal win vindicates what his clients — The Old Growth Forest Network, and Yough Farms, LLC, owned by Steve Storck — have said all along.

“If the DNR did the review that it was supposed to do, it would replace the bridge in its current location instead of authorizing clear cutting of old growth hemlocks right along the banks of the river,” Schwenk said.

“One of the DNR’s most unsupported claims was that a new bridge and new road in a different location was a ‘continuation of an existing use,’” he said. “By making that claim, the DNR tried to avoid the fact that the entire area was designated an Irreplaceable Natural Area in which all development was banned.”

The court ruled that the only continuation of an existing use is a replacement bridge built on the existing site, and held that DNR did not adequately address numerous “red flags.”

It states that a July 5, 2023, memorandum to Kurtz from Mary Owens, former DNR manager for the proposed bridge project, said “some impacts to the Scenic and Wild River Corridor and to Swallow Falls State Park are unavoidable.”

Now, Schwenk said, DNR is required to start over in its assessment of how to replace the bridge.

06/08/2026

PUBLIC COMMENTS NEEDED: Please submit a comment to Garrett County Government asking them to keep the bridge where it is. Garrett County should not clear cut this swath of Old Growth Hemlocks on public land simply to avoid a temporary detour. The forested area on the north side of the current bridge is part of (or adjoining to) an Irreplaceable Natural Area designated by the State of Maryland.

Maryland’s Irreplaceable Natural Areas program (established 2022) names Tolliver Falls (64), the Youghiogheny River (74) , and the Yough River & Tributaries (75) as Irreplaceable Natural Areas (INA). Maryland Law defines an INA as an area with habitat necessary to support a unique natural community or a plant or animal species listed as Threatened or Endangered by the State. Learn more at https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/ina.aspx

For additional info on this controversial bridge project, see Keep the Wild Yough Wild.

Let's not let this needless destruction happen. Please help inform all who visit Swallow Falls and understand the importance of these Old Growth trees and the rare habitat they support. Sierra Club Maryland Chapter Maryland LCV Food & Water Watch - Maryland HoCo Climate Action Mountain Watershed Association

05/27/2026

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: If you know anyone who lives within 10 miles of a fracking operation in Pennsylvania, please let them know about FREE WATER TESTING by participating in this study of rural water supplies!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E6JTrEnTU

Want to find out what's in your water? So do we!

Elizabeth Smith, a researcher at Carnegie Melon, is conducting a study on the impacts that fracking has had on public and private water sources. The study is free, and will occur throughout June.

If you're interested in being a part of the study, which includes no-cost testing of your water supply, visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflvJGbYX9RQ--jZ_qCIiMlX-srA5GLmi2SOh96iQCLyQPVNg/viewform to sign up!

04/30/2026

PAINFULLY CLEAR Op-Ed in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

From the story: Three years ago, I met Alex Rafalowicz of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative during Climate Week in New York City. In a conversation that stayed with me, he said: “Renewable energies are a hope not only for reducing emissions and protecting biodiversity, but also for decreasing the violence and conflicts associated with fossil fuels.”

What once seemed like an idealistic argument now looks more like a geopolitical one. This is not only about the environment. It is about the economy and national security.

The United States still consumes large amounts of oil, but the structure of that demand is already changing. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has documented a steady decline in gasoline consumption per person.

A more efficient vehicle fleet, hybrid adoption, and rising electric vehicle use have reduced fuel demand even as Americans drive more miles. New vehicles now average over 27 miles per gallon, far higher than two decades ago.

The system is already shifting, even if our politics have not fully caught up.
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Renewables do not eliminate global risk, but they diversify it. There is a tendency in America to treat energy as a zero-sum fight: oil versus wind, tradition versus innovation, realism versus idealism. But on the ground, the reality is blended.

Pennsylvania does not lose its identity because it adds solar capacity. And American energy strength does not have to depend on a single global pressure point that repeatedly feeds instability back into our economy.

A more diversified energy system reduces America’s exposure to geopolitical shocks we neither control nor contain.

At a gas station in Allegheny County, the politics of the Middle East can feel far away … until they aren’t. We are once again in one of those...