Pennsylvanians Against Fracking

Pennsylvania Against Fracking seeks to institute a blanket moratorium on natural gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania. ¹ The coalition calls for legislation that bans the construction of new wells and infrastructure until comprehensive studies on the impact of the process on Pennsylvania, excluding the input of energy companies, have been completed. ¹

Food and Water Watch

Though Pennsylvanians Against Fracking includes several members, its online content is dominated by Food and Water Watch (FWW), an anti-natural-gas national environmentalist group. The organization’s Twitter account almost exclusively retweets content from FWW and FWW political director Sam Bernhardt. The account has also retweeted content from some other anti-natural-gas environmentalist accounts, including Berks Gas Truth and Delaware River Keeper Network CEO Maya K. van Rossum. ²

Anti-Pipeline Activism

Pennsylvanians Against Fracking has been opposed the construction of conventional energy pipelines. Pennsylvanians Against Fracking, with support from Lancaster Against Pipelines, has opposed the construction of the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, which crosses Lancaster County. ³ On September 15, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the environmental plan for the pipeline. ⁴ In response, Pennsylvanians Against Fracking and Lancaster Against Pipelines engaged in public protests, including trespassing onto private property where the pipeline is located. ⁵

Pennsylvanians Against Fracking has also opposed the construction of Sunoco’s Mariner East-2 Pipeline, which connects Pittsburgh with Philadelphia. The coalition has claimed that Sunoco obtained permits to construct the pipeline through a “perversion” of eminent domain laws, claiming that the pipeline will not serve the public good as is required to claim eminent domain. ^{6 6}

In 2018, Pennsylvanians Against Fracking opposed the construction of a 485-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plant along the banks of the Schuylkill River in Berks County Pennsylvania. ⁷ To supply the power plant, DTE Midstream Appalachia constructed a 13.2-mile natural gas pipeline. Pennsylvanians Against Fracking claimed that the plant would increase flooding because the county is located on a floodplain. ⁷ Despite Pennsylvanians Against Fracking’s environmentalist objections, the Pennsylvania government approved the pipeline’s environmental permits, and the Birdsboro Plant went live in 2019. ⁸