HARRISBURG, PA (December 9, 2025) – At its Tuesday, December 9 meeting, Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board voted to accept the rulemaking petition submitted by Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project to increase minimum no-drill zones from fracking sites to homes, schools, water sources, and streams. DEP will now prepare a report evaluating the petition, as well as the dozens of health studies included in it, and will make a recommendation to the EQB on whether the EQB should approve the action requested in the petition. The Protective Buffers PA coalition, composed of environmental and public health organizations, is championing the rulemaking petition to enhance the health and safety of people across the Commonwealth by reducing exposure to fracking pollution.
Minimum setbacks, also referred to as protective buffers and no-drill zones in the context of fracking, are mandatory distances between new fracking wells and homes, schools, hospitals, drinking water wells, and surface waters. Pennsylvania’s current fracking well location requirements—which include a waivable 500-foot setback from buildings and a 1,000-foot setback from water supply extraction points—are woefully insufficient to protect public health and the environment from the dangers of fracking.
The rulemaking petition asks the DEP to consider instituting the following research-informed setbacks:
- 3,281 feet from any building and from any drinking water well;
- 5,280 feet from any building serving vulnerable populations (e.g., schools, hospitals); and
- 750 feet from any surface water of the Commonwealth.
On April 8, 2025, Environmental Integrity Project and Clean Air Council presented on why EQB should accept the petition, and DEP recommended that EQB accept it for further study, but the EQB vote was stalled for eight months. In September 2025, Environmental Integrity Project and Clean Air Council filed an amended version of the petition that was substantively identical to the earlier petition but also incorporated citizen petitions, legal documents, and a research report that was handed to EQB at the April meeting. Now that the EQB has voted to accept the amended petition, DEP has 60 days to prepare a report evaluating the petition, to which the groups will be able to respond. Then DEP will make its final recommendation. If DEP recommends a regulatory change, it has six months to develop a proposed rulemaking for EQB consideration, which will then go through public notice and comment.
“Clean Air Council is thrilled to see the EQB do the right thing and allow DEP to study our petition,” said Alex Bomstein, Executive Director of Clean Air Council. “We are confident that the research supports these stronger protections and will convince DEP of the need to protect Pennsylvanians across the state from the serious dangers of fracking.”
“EQB took an important step today to protect the people of this Commonwealth from fracking pollution,” said Lisa Hallowell, Senior Attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project. “We hope DEP and EQB move quickly to require the minimum setbacks the petition seeks so that no more families have to suffer the health effects that have been documented in dozens of studies as a result of the woefully inadequate current setback distances.”
“Today was an important milestone for residents who have waited far too long for basic public health protections from fracking’s harms, ” said Melissa Ostroff, Pennsylvania Policy and Field Advocate with Earthworks. “EQB did the right thing in following DEP’s recommendation to move this petition to the next step in the regulatory process. Impacted residents deserve to see a report from DEP about increasing setback distances without delay.”
“Today’s vote represents an important step toward closing the large gap between science and policy in Pennsylvania,” said Alison L. Steele, Executive Director, Environmental Health Project. “What we know from dozens of peer-reviewed health studies is clear: while there is no established ‘safe’ distance from fracking operations, increasing the distance from those who live, work, and play nearby lowers the risk of negative health impacts. We look forward to the DEP’s review of relevant, unbiased research and a timely recommendation for setback requirements informed by scientific evidence.”
“Advancing this commonsense rulemaking petition to study the implications of stronger protective buffers is the first step towards protecting the health of 3.6 million Pennsylvanians who share their communities with fracked wells,” said Katie Jones, Ohio River Valley Coordinator at FracTracker Alliance. “Research shows that larger buffers are necessary to safeguard public health, and reviewing these protections enhances state oversight without prohibiting unconventional drilling.”
“Protect PT applauds the EQB’s sound decision to vote this petition forward for review by the DEP,” said Gillian Graber, Executive Director, Protect PT. “For the first time, the DEP will take health impacts into account when considering the statewide minimum drilling setback for unconventional wells, using the research that our coalition has compiled. We know the findings are impossible to ignore. It’s been a long time coming, but today marks a significant step closer to essential health protections for frontline communities like ours in Southwestern PA.”
“My family is not alone in knowing that fracking happens too close to our homes,” said Jodi Borello, Community Organizer, Center for Coalfield Justice. “Those of us who testified to the grand jury gave all we had to have the truth heard and still had to wait half a decade for action. As communities have suffered impacts to our health and homes and more children have gotten sick, we have been calling on anyone in power to finally stand up to this industry and bring meaningful, sensible solutions. The EQB’s ruling is a long overdue step towards relief for impacted communities and working families like mine. I am proud to be part of a coalition that never stopped fighting for the people most impacted by this industry.”
Fracking contaminates groundwater (used for public and private drinking water supplies) and also pollutes surface water, damaging headwater streams and other ecosystems. Furthermore, spills often occur in watersheds linked to drinking water sources and the air pollution from fracking causes illness.
Dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies show that a person’s proximity to fracking wells is associated with severe human health risks and a wide range of ailments, including increased cancer rates, increased hospitalization rates, and higher rates of respiratory, neurological, dermatological, and muscular symptoms. Vulnerable populations are particularly susceptible—numerous studies have shown that proximity to fracking wells harms health for infants and children. In addition to these studies, first-hand accounts of residents living near Pennsylvania fracking wells demonstrate the profound harms of living close to fracking.
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Clean Air Council is a member-supported environmental organization serving Pennsylvania and the surrounding regions. The Council is dedicated to protecting everyone’s right to a healthy environment. The Council works through a broad array of sustainability and public health initiatives, including public education, community action, government oversight, and enforcement of environmental laws. For more information, please visit www.cleanair.org.
The Environmental Integrity Project is America’s environmental watchdog. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting public health and our natural world by holding polluters and government agencies accountable under the law. We advocate for tough but fair environmental standards and empower communities fighting for clean air and clean water.
Earthworks protects communities and the environment from the adverse impacts of mineral and energy development while promoting sustainable solutions. Since 1988, Earthworks has helped communities secure protections of their health, land, water, and air from extractive industries. We are the only national organization in the U.S. to focus exclusively on preventing the destructive impacts of the extraction of oil, gas, and minerals.
The Environmental Health Project (EHP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public health organization that defends public health in the face of shale gas development. EHP provides frontline communities with timely monitoring, interpretation, and guidance while engaging diverse stakeholders: health professionals, researchers, community organizers, policy makers, and others.
FracTracker Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides technical expertise and services—including useful, real-world data, scientific analyses, interactive maps, and other visual tools—to help activists, researchers, and the public better understand the environmental, economic, and social problems driven by extractive industries. To learn more about FracTracker Alliance, visit fractracker.org.
Protect PT (Penn-Trafford) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring residents’ safety, security, and quality of life by engaging in education and advocacy to protect the economic, environmental, and legal rights of the people in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties. Protect PT was established in 2014 as a grassroots community-based organization designed to protect our community from the harmful environmental impacts of fossil fuel activity.
CCJ’s mission is to improve policy and regulations for the oversight of fossil fuel extraction and use; to educate, empower and organize coalfield residents; and to protect public and environmental health. We provide community members with detailed information about proposed projects and potential impacts so they can make informed decisions about individual or collective actions. We connect people in similar struggles together to build power and to invest in the leadership of people living in Washington and Greene Counties. We blend organizing, communications, legal, and policy strategies to build power with and for residents across Washington and Greene Counties, and to create an expanded set of options for achieving justice. Through this approach, and by investing in people’s skills and leadership, our communities will be able to advocate effectively for a healthy environment and thriving economy. www.centerforcoalfieldjustice.org
August 15, 2025 – On July 29, 2025, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a proposal to rescind the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. This finding specifically states that greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, that are produced by vehicles and polluters are critically dangerous to human health. These and other greenhouse gases are considered air pollutants under the Clean Air Act (CAA) by the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007).
Simply put, the Supreme Court considered empirical scientific data on climate change when forming the Massachusetts opinion, not solely legal reasoning. This is a critical nuance as it considers the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases to be much more than a political ploy. As such, in 2007, the Court determined that the EPA has a legal duty to act because the emissions of greenhouse gases harm human health and fuel climate change. Today, Administrator Zeldin actively denies that climate change is an imminent danger to the American public. But, from disastrous floods to devastating wildfires, the immediate impacts of climate change pose a public health crisis right in front of our faces.
The “Climate Chaos Plan” to repeal the endangerment finding would not only give polluters a free pass, but would subject the general population to a significantly decreased quality of life. The proposed rescission is technically legal, but without the ability to formally recognize threatening pollutants for what they are, the EPA won’t have authority to regulate them under the CAA. This is an outright denial of critical scientific data compiled by esteemed scientists around the globe. Trump and Zeldin’s plan ignores basic pillars of human health and the ongoing climate crisis, all to ensure polluting facilities stay in business. If passed, this “Climate Chaos Plan” will ultimately allow the fossil fuel industry to emit greenhouse gases at mass rates, putting the general population at further risk. These risks include more respiratory illness (both chronic and acute), catastrophic wildfires, and disease-carrying insects, as well as less safe drinking water.
Trump and Zeldin’s plan drastically contradicts the EPA’s core purpose. Where the goal once was to protect the public from climate change, the current administration has manipulated the narrative. Stripping away cornerstone protections on public health and climate change to allegedly save a quick buck is not in the best interest of the population nor the environment. The plan will not provide the economic opportunity it alleges. Instead, it will drive up the costs of everyday goods, healthcare, and energy.
Your health should not be up for debate. Take action today to protect your family’s future from the “Climate Chaos Plan.” The EPA is holding mandatory public comment hearings on the proposed rule on August 19 and 20, 2025, and a potential additional session on August 21, 2025. To register, email EPA-MobileSource-Hearings@epa.gov. The public comment period for written comments ends on September 15, 2025.
HARRISBURG, PA (April 25, 2025) – This week, Pennsylvania legislators introduced six bills as part of Governor Shapiro’s “Lightning Plan,” which was announced in January. These bills include policies for enhancing the siting, production, and usage of renewable and fossil fuel energy sources alike and updating an outdated energy efficiency program.
Despite growing energy demand from data centers leading to an increased need for clean, reliable energy, only 3% of Pennsylvania’s energy currently comes from renewable sources. Legislation in the Lightning Plan, namely the Pennsylvania Renewable Energy Standards and Sustainability (PRESS), the Reliable Energy Siting and Electric Transition Board (RESET), and the Community Energy bills have the potential to greatly promote the deployment of affordable, renewable energy in Pennsylvania while creating good-paying jobs.
Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director, issued the following statement:
“Our Commonwealth is experiencing an ever-increasing demand for energy that is clean and affordable, especially as more extreme weather events threaten the reliability of gas-fired power plants and as we fail to take aggressive action against polluting industries that increase energy demand while contributing to climate change. These bills that are part of Governor Shapiro’s Lightning Plan are overall an important step in tackling this issue. However, it is critical that Pennsylvania prioritize renewable energy over adding more unreliable fossil fuels to our grid. We look forward to working with the Governor’s office and the Legislature to ensure this plan helps realize new, clean energy projects that keep our air clean, our communities healthy, and our energy affordable.”
The court decision paves the way for groups to contest harmful environmental decisions by invoking the constitutional rights of their members.
Thursday, July 18, 2024, Harrisburg, PA — Today, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recognized the fundamental right of PennFuture, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense Fund and their members to defend Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), by overturning the Commonwealth Court’s June 28, 2022 denial of intervention.
Participation in RGGI would benefit Pennsylvanians and our economy by lowering carbon emissions, reducing air pollution, saving consumers money, and creating clean energy investment and family-sustaining jobs.
At issue was whether the environmental nonprofit organizations could intervene and become parties to defend the RGGI Regulation in several challenges before the Commonwealth Court. The nonprofits sought, among other things, to protect their members constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment under Article I, section 27 of Pennsylvania’s constitution, often called the “Environmental Rights Amendment.” The Commonwealth Court had believedfound that Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) “adequately represented” the nonprofit organizations’ interests in this case and denied the organizations’ application to participate as parties in the RGGI litigation.
The Supreme Court disagreed. The Supreme Court wrote that environmental groups’ “significant evidentiary presentation demonstrating environmental, health, and quality-of-life harms to their individual members established [a substantial, direct, and immediate] interest.” The majority noted: “At stake for these individuals is not just fidelity to the law but the quality of their lives.”
As they had previewed at oral argument in May 2023, the Court was critical of DEP’s failure to raise the Environmental Rights Amendment, and its obligations as a trustee of public natural resources: “The lower court’s analysis of the adequate representation question unreasonably omits the fact DEP has never once invoked the ERA in support of the RGGI Regulation . . . Although DEP raised other arguments in support of the RGGI Regulation, it made none whatsoever premised upon the ERA. Nonprofits sought intervention, inter alia, to fill this void and defend the RGGI Regulation under the ERA…Nonprofits’ ERA defense is hardly “irrelevant” to this case.”
“Today’s decision shows that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court not only recognizes Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air and a healthy, stable environment, but respects their right to fight for it. The significance of this recognition cannot be overstated,” said Jessica O’Neill, PennFuture’s Managing Attorney for Litigation. “The RGGI Regulation is a critical step for Pennsylvania to protect the air and environment for Pennsylvanians today and for our future generations. PennFuture looks forward to continuing our defense of RGGI and enforcing our members’ constitutional rights.”
“The RGGI Regulation is the most important step Pennsylvania has taken to-date to fight the deepening climate crisis, which makes the Court’s decision to allow public interest voices to defend the Regulation all the more important,” said Alex Bomstein, Executive Director of Clean Air Council. “As we live through more deadly heat waves, polluted air, and extreme weather, our need for the climate and health benefits of the RGGI Regulation couldn’t be starker.”
“We are very pleased with the Court’s decision, which affirms that our members have a keen interest in defending their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment,” said Tom Schuster, Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter. “This ruling underscores the importance of our Environmental Rights Amendment, particularly as it relates to protections against climate disruption, the defining environmental issue of our time.”
“Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rightly recognized what is at stake for Pennsylvanians and the importance of their constitutional right to clean air and a healthy environment,” says Edwin LaMair, Attorney, Environmental Defense Fund. “We look forward to continuing to provide a robust defense of Pennsylvania’s program, which will substantially cut pollution from power plants and protect communities.”
The decision also dismissed as moot the environmental groups’ appeal of the preliminary injunction of the RGGI rule, since a permanent injunction stopping the RGGI Regulation from going into effect was granted by the Commonwealth Court on November 1, 2023. The appeals of the permanent injunction are presently before the PA Supreme Court, with briefs to be filed this summer. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the merits of this challenge after briefing has been completed.
Opinions in full:
PHILADELPHIA, PA (August 12, 2022)
This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to adopt the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a budget reconciliation bill that was approved by the U.S. Senate earlier this week. The bill, which contains $369 billion in climate and clean energy investments, and which preliminary modeling analysis shows will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 40% (from 2005 levels) by 2030, will now be sent to President Biden’s desk for his signature.
Image from a preliminary report prepared by Princeton University’s REPEAT Project
Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Clean Air Council Executive Director and Chief Counsel, issued the following statement:
“After nearly two years of negotiations and stalemates, our country can take a deep breath, bask in this moment, and celebrate the fact that we finally have a historic climate bill that will move the country towards meaningful climate action. While no piece of legislation is perfect, the Inflation Reduction Act will make a historic $369 billion investment in climate change solutions, create millions of high-paying jobs in building America’s clean energy economy, and help prevent thousands of premature deaths by 2030. This bill is a game changer and a much-needed step in the right direction as most Americans are already facing the devastating impacts of climate change.”
“Especially critical for Pennsylvania, the nation’s second largest producer of fossil gas, the IRA will put a price on climate-warming methane pollution from the oil and gas industry, starting at $900 a ton in 2024 and increasing to $1,500 a ton for companies that fail to comply with EPA’s upcoming pollution standards for new and existing oil and gas facilities. This is an essential complementary tool for reducing methane emissions, which are already causing 30% of the global warming that we are experiencing today. We are also excited to see at least $60 billion of investments for programs prioritized by environmental justice communities and advocates.”
“Because this moment arrived after such long, difficult negotiations, we must also acknowledge this is a compromise bill. It does contain troubling giveaways to the fossil fuel industry and could threaten communities that have already suffered disproportionate impacts from fossil fuel pollution. Clean Air Council plans to closely analyze the forthcoming separate bill resulting from these negotiations that will deal with permit reforms. Still, even as the fight to protect against the worst impacts from climate change moves forward, we can breathe a well-deserved sigh of relief that the historic amount of good included in this bill far outweighs the bad. Today is a day to celebrate long-awaited federal climate action.”
