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In the midst of an artificial intelligence boom thats reshaping almost every facet of the business world, companies are competing in an arms race to build the best and brightest models and fully embrace the nascent technology, whether thats as a product or service for customers or as an integral component of their organizations processes. This has raised the profile and pursuit of data science: After all, as Airbyte CEO and co-founder Michel Tricot succinctly put it, no data, no AI.But this arms race could have many winners at its finish line. Indeed, this years honorees all have something in common beyond their creative use of data in a world increasingly dependent on it: namely, a keen understanding of how to employ data science to make a positive impact on the world around them, building a successful business in the process.They include Unstructured, which helps organizations from Fortune 10 companies to the U.S, military transform raw data into the fuel for AI applications; Chainalysis, a blockchain intelligence group thats become the go-to agency for financial institutions and law enforcement countering crypto crime; Norstella, which harnesses big data to help biopharmaceutical companies develop thousands of life-saving drugs through accelerated planning and AI-assisted decision-making; Makersite, which employs AI to help manufacturers embrace data-driven transparent supply chains in pursuit of ethical consumption; and Satelytics, which analyzes satellite-based geospatial data in search of methane leaks so energy companies can reduce emissions. Vacuuming up data to build an in-house AI agent is one thing, but using that data to substantially improve the lives of consumers is another thing entirely and these companies all earned a spot on our list because of it.1. UnstructuredFor broadening the scope of corporate data that can inform AIUnstructureds goal is to help businesses unlock and leverage their unstructured data, making it accessible as the foundation for AI-powered solutions. With the majority of enterprise information trapped in disparate formats that are hard to analyze and integrateso much so that developers and data scientists spend more than 75% of their time simply preparing data for ingestionUnstructured automates the transformation of raw data into AI-friendly formats, enabling organizations to utilize it for RAG (retrieval-augmented generation, which uses supplemental data to improve results) and fine-tuning large language models.Its solution extracts unstructured data from databases, converts more than 30 file types into LLM-ready formats, and loads the results into vector databases for RAG applications. By continuously providing real-time, up-to-date data, Unstructureds platform ensures that LLMs are tailored to specific organizational knowledge.In 2024, the company launched its commercial SaaS API and enterprise platform, a move that quickly attracted over 10,000 customers. Its now parlaying its advancement of business AI into serving as an open-source tools hub for the technology community. Its also playing a critical role in national security by partnering with U.S. military organizations, including the Air Force, Space Force, and Special Operations Command.Read more about Unstructured, honored as No. 24 on Fast Companys list of the Worlds 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.2. ChainalysisFor bringing transparency to the crypto industryChainalysis blockchain data platform targets trust and transparency in the crypto industry. Its compliance software helps crypto companies fulfill anti-money-laundering and other legal requirements while its investigative software helps government agencies regulate the industry. In 2024, Chainalysis screened more than 250 million transfers and $4 trillion in transactions, identifying 6,500 unique entities and collaborating with more than 1,300 customers worldwide. It helped recover more than $11 billion in illicit funds and track nearly $25 billion in criminal transactions. The company is on track to take in an estimated $250 million revenue (up nearly 30% over the previous year). It has partnered with government agencies, financial institutions, and cybersecurity firms in more than 70 countries and more than 250 law enforcement agencies worldwide.Chainalys has also introduced key upgrades to its Crypto Investigations Solution, enabling agencies to instantly assess blockchain addresses and trace complex crypto transactions. In 2024, the company scored a pivotal win when a U.S. district court judge ruled that its blockchain forensics were admissible as substantive evidence, establishing a critical legal precedent and affirming the reliability of its analytics for prosecutors and regulators.Read more about Chainalysis, honored as No. 36 on Fast Companys list of the Worlds 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.3. AirbyteFor simplifying large-scale data integration for AI-centric projectsIn a world dominated by AI, its difficult to overstate how critical data management is to the foundations of a functional system. As Airbyte CEO Michel Tricot notes, no data, no AI. The company makes it easy for organizations to move data from any source to any destination so businesses can unlock the potential of that data. In 2024, Airbytes technology helped organizations fuel AI-driven initiatives using existing data pipelines through support for eight vector databases, RAG transformations (which improve response accuracy and relevance), and unstructured data management. The launch of Airbyte Marketplace, featuring more than 400 certified data connectors, further simplified integration by enabling instant deployment or customization. With an open-source model fostering community-driven innovation, Airbyte has used AI to help a robust community of 20,000 data engineers develop 10,000+ user-built custom data connectors.The companys initiatives drove a fourfold increase in revenue in 2024. Airbyte has become the most widely adopted data movement platform globally with more than 170,000 deployments across 7,000 active companies, including Siemens and Peloton.4. NorstellaFor fostering faster drug discovery by analyzing billions of data pointsNorstellas goal is to help major pharmaceutical and life sciences companies navigate the complex path to developing lifesaving treatments. That, in turn, makes it easier and faster to get life-changing therapies into the hands of the patients who need them. Launched in 2024, its NorstellaLinQ platform integrates over 74 billion data pointsincluding insights from hundreds of medication launches, tens of thousands of clinical trials across 185 countries, and 500,000 investigationsto combine real-world data with proprietary clinical, regulatory, and commercial intelligence. The result is sharper decision-making and accelerated clinical trial planning to facilitate faster drug development.The company also launched Citeline SmartSolutions, a suite of AI-enabled products that uses Norstellas trove ofdata to address challenges in clinical trial design. The platform saves customers time and money by optimizing trial predictability, reducing costly amendments, and streamlining investigator selection. Norstellas integration of real-world insights and diversity data further enhances trial design, ensuring more inclusive, accurate studies.Norstellas impact is already evident: In the past year, the company has helped bring over 50 new drugs to market. It is now assisting major pharmaceutical and biotech companies that have more than 23,000 drugs in their pipelines.5. MakersiteFor helping companies design and build more sustainable and cost-effective productsMakersites goal is to streamline product development with data-driven supply chain transparency, enabling companies to design and manufacture more sustainable and cost-effective products. By combining the worlds largest manufacturing data foundation with proprietary algorithms, the company claims to deliver real-time lifecycle assessments 100 times faster than the best available alternatives. Its user-friendly dashboard guides designers and engineers to better data-driven decisions early in development.In 2024, the company launched new tools that enhance the solutions flexibility and granularity. In-workflow plugins improve sustainability and cost estimates by using proprietary data instead of industry averages, and an AI-powered eco-design dashboard has already helped engineers reduce product and packaging lifecycle impacts by up to 58%. Makersite also expanded its data platform, integrating environmental database providers like Carbon Minds to enhance insights about chemicals and plastics and using generative AI to deliver more precise data for mechanical and chemical supply chains.Makersite doubled year-over-year revenue in 2024 as the company saw 20% growth in enterprise customers. Its highest-profile win was with Microsoft, which used the companys unique methodology to identify carbon hotspots in the Surface Pro 10s supply chain and reduce the devices carbon footprint by 28% versus the previous model. The improvement vividly demonstrated how Makersite can help customers align design excellence with ethical consumption.6. AnacondaFor expanding AIs reach to the masses with its premier Python platform.In 2024, Anaconda solidified its role as the worlds leading platform for specialized deployments of Pythonthe most popular data science programming languageby offering data scientists, developers, and enterprises better and more sophisticated tools. Its distribution platform, trusted by 93% of Fortune 500 companies and 45 million users, introduced innovations that scaled Pythons impact across industries by simplifying workflows and democratizing advanced analytics. Key features included Python in Excel, allowing non-programmers to create AI-powered code generation and effortless data visualizations without external installations.Anaconda also launched the AI Navigator, a curated library of 200+ pre-trained models for natural language processing, code generation and more. The desktop app offered enterprise-grade security and local AI deployment, enabling users to harness generative AI while safeguarding sensitive data. Additionally, the enhanced Anaconda Assistant and Code & Toolbox streamlined coding, debugging, and data visualization, making Python workflows more accessible.By tapping into Pythons 839% growth in enterprise usage and quadrupling to over 1 million organizations since 2022, Anaconda has helped to fuel the languages reach, reflecting the companys commitment to push the boundaries of data science in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.7. SatelyticsFor detecting methane leaks with satellite-based geospatial analyticsSatelytics is a geospatial analytics platform that uses multispectral and hyperspectral imagery from satellites, drones, aircraft, and fixed cameras to deliver actionable insights for the natural gas industry. By analyzing this data, Satelytics can rapidly pinpoint problems like methane leaks with remarkable detail and deliver alerts within hours, minimizing costs and operational disruptions.In 2024, Duke Energy used Satelytics AI-powered platform to detect leaks as small as 1 kg/hr with pinpoint accuracy; the deployment identified 433 methane plumes alone during its first scan of Charlotte, North Carolina. The projects success led the energy company to expand the program across five states and to laud Satelytics as a key driver in its efforts to drastically reduce methane emissions.Satelytics applications extend beyond energy; the company is also advancing land management through a collaboration with Envus RangeView tool.By analyzing invasive species like cheatgrass and medusahead and employing high-resolution imagery and AI-powered insights, Satelytics helps ranchers and landowners precisely tackle infestations, reducing manual labor and restoring rangeland productivity. It is another demonstration of how the companys offerings can address critical environmental and operational challenges while driving efficiency and sustainability.9. EarthDailyFor using big data to help the mining industry improve its sustainability.While calls for sustainability from an industry like mining might seem inherently hypocritical, harnessing renewable energy still requires using rare-earth materials that must be mined. To that end, at least one technology company is applying data science to encourage mining company sustainability while enhancing efficiency, safety, and transparency. In 2024, Descartes Labs, a provider of AI tools for geospatial data analysis that was recently acquired by EarthDaily, expanded the companys novel data collection and analysis tools to include mineral exploration and operational safety. Marigold, its cloud-hosted mineral exploration platform, features hyperspectral processing, The technique enables precise mineral composition analysis that accelerates ore discovery while minimizing unnecessary drilling. Iris, the companys other flagship product, leverages interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to monitor ground deformation with millimeter-scale accuracy. Its automated alerts can help operators prevent disasters and better comply with environmental regulations.Descartes Labs will continue to integrate its newly acquired geospatial analytics and data science capabilities to help customers optimize resource use while miniizing environmental impact and community risk.10. NominalFor building a data platform for mission-critical testing and evaluationNominals data platform is purpose-built for testing and evaluation within mission-critical sectors such as aerospace, defense, and advanced technology. While hardware companies have previously wrestled with complex, messy data pipelines and multiple analysis tools, Nominal integrates real-time data processing, advanced analytics, and collaborative tools to unify the testing lifecycle.The companys platform ingests and synchronizes complex datasets, validates systems in real time, and diagnoses root causes by using comparative analysis, environmental context-aware analytics, and other tools. It can be deployed on anything from cloud servers to ruggedized laptops. In 2024, Nominal developed a unified platform to enable seamless synchronization, organization, and analysis of high-scale, multi-format data with dynamic tools for visualization, anomaly detection, and root cause analysis. It also raised $27.5 million in Series A funding from General Catalyst, Founders Fund, and other investors. Its offerings, which have been used to accelerate test campaigns for autonomous drones, optimize jet engines at military test facilities, and analyze spacecraft reentry data for the U.S. Air Force, Varda Space Industries, and others, continue to transform testing and evaluation.Explore the full 2025 list of Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies, 609 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. Weve selected the companies making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, applied AI, biotech, retail, sustainability, and more.
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Have you ever finished off your last pickle spear and, craving a little more of that vinegary punch, taken a couple of sips of brine straight from the jar? Or maybe youre more open about your pickle juice habits and like to mix up a pickle martini in the light of day, rather than hunched over your fridge light at 2 a.m. Whatever you prefer, now theres a product designed for exactly those kinds of moments. Claussen, the Chicago-based pickle purveyor, has picked up on the TikTok trend of using pickle brine as a mixer for everything from Diet Coke to pickle cereal, and theyre meeting customers where theyre at with a new drink called Just the Brine. As the name suggests, Just the Brine is an eight-ounce bottle of juice-sans-pickle. The limited-edition product comes in a six-pack, and it debuted for a short time on GoPuff over the weekend in honor of St. Patricks Day (for those who missed out, it’s now available to win on Claussens website while supplies last.) Just the Brine is the latest evolution of a pickle craze that started back in 2022 (remember Sonics pickle slushie?) and has shown a shockingly strong staying power in the cultural zeitgeist. [Photo: Claussen] Care for some pickles with that brine? Since 2022, weve gone from pickle pizza and potato chips to Grillos pickle toothpasteand, judging by TikToks ongoing pickle obsession, it seems like the trend has yet to run its course. Users are finding ways to use the preserved vegetables that even the most ardent pickle fans never couldve imagined, like a pickle fountain or a fried pickle board. The next evolution of the trend, it seems, is to just lose the pickles altogether. Last October, Dua Lipas viral TikTok video mixing Diet Coke with pickle juice sparked a cultural moment, amassing over 12 million views, says Caroline Sheehey, Claussens brand manager. Inspired by her mixture, Claussen responded by seeding a product concept, Just The Brine, on Instagram. The post received nearly 70,000 likes and thousands of comments from fans sharing how they already love Claussens beloved brine and use it in a variety of ways such as after a sports workout, as a brine for their chicken, to help with dehydration as a morning after cure, cocktail mixer, and more. After seeing the fan response, Sheehy says, the team knew they had to make Just the Brine a reality. Claussen is marketing its brine bottles as a kind of dual-purpose product: a mixer to pregame your night out, and an electrolyte beverage for your inevitable hangover the next day. One serving size is two ounces, which contains 630 mg of sodium (about half the sodium content of a standard instant ramen pack.) [Just the Brine] is perfect for pickling at night and using as a mixer in your cocktails or soda, and perfect for unpickling the next morning as a refreshing electrolyte boost, Sheehy says. Its a strange marketing tactic, given that curing your pickle-induced hangover with more pickles seems like the quickest way to never want to set eyes on the color green again. But, lets be honest, the chances that Claussen ever actually adds this stunt product to its permanent line-up are slim to noneso the lucky few who get their hands on it might as well enjoy it via a pickle-fueled rager while it lasts.
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Her voice cracking with emotion as she stood under the fluorescent lights, Janice Blanock asked her local legislators in southwestern Pennsylvania to take a moment and leaf through the photos of her son that shed handed them. Theres really nothing different that I can say to you that I havent said already over the last several months, she told supervisors for the tiny township of Cecil outside Pittsburgh. I can, however, share these photographs. These are just a few of the many pictures we have of our son Luke, from the time he became ill until before he died. The supervisors were gathered to vote on a zoning ordinance amendment that would greatly increase the required buffer zone between oil and gas drilling operations and homes and schools. The proposed rule mandating a setback of 2,500 feetfive times the distance of the current lawhad originally been proposed as a statewide requirement by Governor Josh Shapiro when he was Pennsylvanias attorney general. A bill based on that recommendation later stalled out when introduced in the state House of Representatives. Blanock, a 30-year resident of Cecil, had a reason to take the issue seriously. Her son waged a three-year battle with a rare type of bone cancer known as Ewings sarcoma and died in 2016 at age 19. Many believe, though theres yet to be demonstrable proof, that his cancer could be tied to oil and gas drillings many carcinogenic pollutants, some that are radioactive. In 2019, a cluster of Ewings sarcoma cases was identified in Washington County, where Cecil is located. Cecils school district was hit particularly hard. The county is home to more than 2,000 natural gas wells and was the 2004 birthplace of the states fracking industry. (Fracking is a process in which sand, water, and chemicals are blasted into the earth to free fossil fuel.) A growing body of peer-reviewed research has linked living near natural gas drilling operations to cancers and respiratory, reproductive, and neurological damage. In 2023, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the state Department of Health linked fracking exposure in the region encompassing Cecil to increased risk of asthma and lymphoma. Will you look at the damn picture, Darlene, Blanock urged one supervisor after handing her a photo of Luke. Around an hour later, the zoning ordinance passed and the room erupted with applause. With that, Cecila town of just 15,000 residents and no outsize political powerbecame the first jurisdiction in Pennsylvania to adopt such a restrictive measure, even as similar efforts at the state level have failed. But already it is facing legal challenges from two natural gas companies active in the areaTexas-based fracking company Range Resources, and Colorado-based gas pipeline company MarkWest Liberty Midstream. The Cecil Township Board of Supervisors meets monthly at the towns Municipal Building. [Photo: Audrey Carleton] Under current requirements, natural gas wells in Pennsylvania must be at least 500 feet from buildings and water wells, which environmentalists and medical experts say is not far enough. In 2023, a bill that would have required all new natural gas wells in the state to be located at least 2,500 feetnearly half a milefrom buildings and water wells was slated for a committee vote, but was abruptly killed at the request of Democratic leadership in the state House of Representatives. Three years before that, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a grand jury report calling for a statewide 2,500-foot buffer between human activity and natural gas production. There is one point that is impossible to deny, the grand jury report stated. The closer people happen to live to a massive, industrial drilling complex, the worse it is likely to be for them. While that plea failed to get political traction, environmental groups continue to urge action. For their part, natural gas industry groups have minimized concerns about health risks associated with fracking exposure and have resisted proposals for setbacks or no-drill zones. But despite industry efforts, Cecil has gone its own way. The townships updated oil and gas ordinance prohibits new oil and gas wells from being drilled within 2,500 feet of protected structures, which includes homes, businesses, and religious institutions, and within 5,000 feet of schools and hospitals. Though the ordinance does not call for an outright ban on new drilling, Range Resources contends it would limit fracking in Cecil in such a way that it violates state law. The township argues otherwise: Wells located outside Cecil can still be drilled under the town. The ordinance also imposes additional restrictions on the industry that have generated less debate: It prohibits retention ponds for water used in the fracking process, places new noise restrictions on drilling, and limits work hours on well pads. I was not sure for the longest time that this was going to go this way, said Sarah Martik, a Cecil resident and executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, a southwestern Pennsylvania-based nonprofit environmental justice organization. This one thing is as far as weve ever gone, as far as regulating this industry in a way that is protective of our communities. But the road to this outcome was fraught. Documents obtained by Capital & Main through right-to-know requests reveal an up-close look at life in the shale fields, with citizens largely fed up with living alongside the natural gas industry. Noise, bright lights, and shaking at all hours were among the complaints emailed to supervisors in the months ahead of the vote. Here I am once again trying to prepare for another sleepless night, one resident wrote to the supervisors in May. My whole house shakes, my children are disturbed from sleep, my pets are afraid to be out in the yardcan you please help us. “I have SUFFERED from vertigo for years, another resident wrote in June, referring to vibrations from drilling at a nearby well pad that she felt in her home. You know in some places they torture people with this kind of low res hum and vibration. Torturebecause that is what it is. Documents also offer a look at the playbook the industry followed to curry favor among Cecil residents. Over the five years before the ordinance was adopted in 2024, Range Resources, the townships only active natural gas well operator with 34 active wells per state records, donated nearly to $300,000 to the community. The money was disbursed throughout the township, the encompassing school district, and local volunteer first responder organizations, and it was spent on festivals, childrens sports teams, a science fair, and CPR training sessions, according to a spreadsheet obtained by Capital & Main through a right-to-know request. Range Resources did not immediately respond to Capital & Mains request for comment. At least one township supervisor has financial ties to Range Resources. Records show Supervisor Darlene Barni has, for many years, maintained an oil and gas lease with the company; she ultimately recused herself from the final ordinance vote but participated in earlier stages of its development and routinely shares pro-oil and gas posts on Facebook. The company also weighed in at multiple stages during the drafting of the ordinance, using experts to testify against existing science that ties fracking to poor environmental and health outcomes and urging town leaders to refrain from enacting a setback as large as 2,500 feet. At least 92% of Cecil Townships surface property would be excluded from future oil and gas development, an attorney for Range Resources told supervisors in a letter. This would have the effect of limiting residents oil and gas royalty payments, he wrote. The attorney said the setbacks were exceedingly restrictive and inconsistent. Though the company currently has no permits under consideration for new well pads, Range Resources is challenging the ordinance with the townships Zoning Hearing Board. This process could take months, and the challenge is opposed by the township, residents, and several local environmental groups. At issue is whether Cecils ordinance is legal. Its a very, very specific question, said Kara Shirdon, who chairs the Cecil Zoning Hearing Board but recused herself for Range Resources legal challenge to eliminate the appearance of bias (Shirdon has been publicly supportive of the setback ordinance.) Though she said shes confident the ordinance will survive, she believes it will strain the townships resources. I think, honestly, the whole entire thing is because theyre pissed and they want to drain as much money as possible out of the township as punishment for not letting them do what they want to do. * * * Michelle Stonemark moved to Cecil township in 2012 after her parents bought around 30 acres there with the intent of housing their children and grandchildren. Her parents, sister, and family friends all built homes next to one another, in succession. And then it was my turn, Stonemark told Capital & Main. Just as I had gotten the drawing . . . we find out that Range Resources had applied to put a well pad in right behind my new house. With around 30 days notice, she recalled, Stonemark and her family found legal help and learned everything we could about fracking, in order to oppose the project. But their effort failed. We didnt have enough time. We were starting from nothing, she said. Drilling at the pad began in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, as Stonemark, her husband and three children were stuck at home. Today, the well pad, known as Augustine George, sits just over 500 feet from her home, she said, and routinely rattles the walls and windows and sends fumes into the air. She said she and members of her family often experience headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, and earaches. They can feel vibrations from the well pad in their chests, she said. Flaring would go off at any and all times, during the day, at night, she said. Flaring, which involves burning off excess methane, has been linked to asthma and other respiratory conditions. In response, Stonemark launched a Facebook page she uses to serve as an industry watchdog: She posts photos, videos, and documents relevant to the oil and gas industrys indiscretions, and publicly mourns the future she once envisioned for herself in Cecil. As I stand outside on this beautiful morning I cannot enjoy the day, she wrote in one post in May. A foul odor lingers in the air, and the constant low noises pulsate through my ears and head. Stonemark and her husband are also now attempting to intervene legally ad become a formal party against Range Resources challenge to the setback ordinance. Shirdon said she first caught wind of Range Resources plans for a well pad in 2017, less than a year after moving into her home. Since then, she said shes experienced headaches, sinus and respiratory issues, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, and irritability. The part that people underestimate, I think, is how much anxiety it causes, Shirdon said. Every time you feel the rumble, or every time you get stopped on the road, you start to worry, Are my kids being adversely affected by whats going on here? Merle Lesko has lived in his house nearby for nearly 30 years. Lesko said he and Stonemark often jokingly spar over who lives closer to the Augustine George pad. Salmon pink sound walls, dozens of feet high, poke through a line of trees behind his property. Lesko first urged the township to adopt a new buffer ordinance in early 2024, after regularly recording the decibel level emitted by the Augustine George pad at different locations in his house. He moved his bed and the desk where he works based on the lowest noise reading he found in his residencehis basementjust to escape the vibrations that would rattle his house. The noise was so bad, you could hear or feel the noise over a running lawnmower, he said. Theyve taken so many summers from me.” Though it took months of often impassioned debate, the adoption of Cecils ordinance has added fuel to a fight at the state level, where climate justice organizations are urging environmental regulators to increase the statewide oil and setback of 500 feet. In October, the Protective Buffers Pennsylvania campaign filed a petition with the states Environmental Quality Board, pushing for the adoption of an executive rule that would require a 3,281-foot buffer between fracking wells and buildings and water wellsa setback nearly 1,000 feet wider than in Cecils ordinance. There should be a baseline floor of protection for everybody in the commonwealth, said Lisa Hallowell, senior attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental nonprofit that helped author the petition. More than 10% of Pennsylvanians lived within a half mile of an active oil and gas well as of 2022, the petition notes. Many share medical symptomsrashes, cancers, sleep disordersand have seen their water supplies affected by fracking, the petition states. Protective Buffers Pennsylvania has been involved in previous attempts to pass tougher statewide setback rules, including the 2023 bill that died in committee, Hallowell said. These efforts never got far. The Legislature has not had an appetite for that, she noted. Indeed, around the time that the 2023 setback bill was circulating through the Legislature, state Senator Gene Yaw of Williamsport, Republican chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, questioned the need for the measure at all, saying in a public hearing that he had not heard of any links between fracking and cardiovascular, reproductive, or nervous system damage. Yaw has, separately, disclosed personal income from oil and gas companies EQT and Equinor, and won his reelection to the senate in November after accepting thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. A group of Democratic senators has announced that they soon plan to reintroduce the 2,500-foot setback proposal. But that bill will face an uphill battle in a divided Legislature. Janice Blanock at home [Photo: Audrey Carleton] After helping cement the setback proposal as law in Cecil, Blanock now wants to see other communities protected. Were hoping this movement goes far and wide, Blanock said the day after the ordinance passed. I think, just the fact that that happened last night, people will learn about it [and think], If they can do it, why cant we? Several months later, as legal challenges threaten Cecils hard-won victory, Blanock remains resolute. She still chokes back tears when she talks about Luke, and still resents having had her concerns about health risks associated with fracking exposure denied by the industry. Its not just about Luke, she said. This is about my other children, my grandchildren, my community, my family, friends, neighbors. Blanock shares photos and mementos of her son Luke. [Photo: Audrey Carleton] They can appeal it, she said of the natural gas companies challenging the ordinance. And then we can appeal it. Were as strong in our resolve to win this as they are. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California o economic, political, and social issues.
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