Fact Sheet: Environmental Injustice in Pennsylvania

Polluting facilities like power plants have long been disproportionately located near lower-income areas and communities of color that face substantially higher and unequal pollution burdens. The energy and fracking industry is now pushing for a colossal number of new gas-fired power plants, but state and federal regulators have not assessed the impact of the building boom on the communities where these plants would be located. 

Many of the proposed plants are going into Pennsylvania, ground zero in the fracking boom and connected to East Coast population centers by a growing maze of gas pipelines and electric transmission lines. Food & Water Watch analyzed the proposed placement of Pennsylvania’s 48 new gas-fired power plants and found that the buildout is reinforcing the historic environmental injustice of the state’s existing fossil fuel plants. The new gas plants would benefit fracking and power companies, but the localized pollution would burden the disadvantaged areas surrounding these new plants.