United States, Pennsylvania

Extractive industries, from coal to a petrochemical buildout, have created a captive workforce and impacted the lives of communities throughout the region.

Overview

United States, Pennsylvania

Southwestern Pennsylvania is home to both the largest producing underground coal mine in North America and over three thousand fracked gas drilling and midstream operations. For over a century, extractive industries in the communities have controlled local economies to create a captive workforce dependent upon extractive industries to support their basic needs. The area faces the continued onslaught of fossil fuel extraction in the form of fracking, pipelines, underground storage of natural gas, and a petrochemical buildout leading to the production of nurdles, a large percentage of which will be used to manufacture single-use plastics.

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Community Stories

United States, Pennsylvania

Well Pads

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Lois Bjornson

An impacted Pennsylvania resident and Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer for the Clean Air Council, speaks of the well pads that surround her home.

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Lois Bjornson

An impacted Pennsylvania resident and Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer for the Clean Air Council, visits the site of the Iron well pad, that she can see from her home.

United States, Pennsylvania

Gag Order

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Lois Bjornson

Visits an unoccupied house near the Rumpelstiltskin well, whose owners had to leave when two new well pads were built in front of their home. The owners have a forever gag order and cannot speak about the situation themselves.

United States, Pennsylvania

Processing Plant

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View of the MarkWest Houston, Pennsylvania, Gas Processing and Fractionation Facility.

United States, Pennsylvania

Ethane Cracker

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View of the Ethane Cracker being built in the Ohio River region. The state granted shell the biggest tax break in state history to build this facility - worth 1.65 Billion. The cracker plant will depend on more fracking, locking in fossil fuel extraction for decades to come.