Today, Governor Josh Shapiro announced a small handful of voluntary monitoring programs coordinated with the fracking company CNX, including some chemical disclosures and emissions monitoring at two future well sites. 

In response. Food & Water Watch Pennsylvania State Director Megan McDonough issued the following statement: 

“Governor Shapiro’s toothless monitoring scheme is outrageous and embarrassing. There is no need to do further studies of the harms of fracking on communities across Pennsylvania. The state just wrapped up its own studies linking fracking to cancer, asthma,  and other health harms – and a decade of independent research reaches similar conclusions about fracking’s toll on our health, our climate, and clean water. 

“What’s worse, Governor Shapiro is partnering with CNX, a company that has racked up hundreds of violations over the past decade. The public does not need so-called ‘enhanced monitoring’ at a handful of future drilling sites. We are well past the point of needing new studies to tell us what we already know: Fracking has sickened frontline communities, contaminated water supplies, and increased air and climate pollution. Governor Shapiro knows this too, and instead of taking real actions to rein in corporate polluters, he is striking bogus partnerships to give frackers a public relations victory. 

“This cynical move is nothing more than a slap in the face to the communities that Governor Shapiro vowed to protect.”