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The global energy transition has been on an extraordinary tear in recent years, one that even President Donald Trump, with his dismantling of U.S. climate policy, will struggle to reverse. Propelled by record levels of public and private investment, utility-scale solar and wind power accounted for close to 90% of all new energy build-outs in the first nine months of 2024, a nearly 30% surge over 2023. Still, the low carbon, electrified future cant come quickly enough. The surge in energy consumption by data centers, electric vehicles, and manufacturing is putting a strain on an already struggling electrical grid, and pushing up planet-warming pollution: Alongside all the clean energy, the amount of energy derived from oil and coal and natural gas are also hitting all-time highs. The heavy-duty chips used to train AI models and infer outputs are especially demanding: running and cooling the data centers they fill already uses as much electricity each year as Italy, which has the eighth-largest GDP in the world. With all these greenhouse gasses, were likely to need even more cooling: January to June of last year was the planets warmest six-month stretch in 175 years.This years Most Innovative Companies in Energy are meeting the challenge with advances that stretch from microgrids to giant batteries to the fan motors that keep data centers and the rest of the economy humming along. By assembling giant battery systems, Powin is helping ease the transition to cleaner energy sources and optimizing grid performance, while Intersect Power is building up capacity before the grid even arrives, by working behind the meter to combine battery storage with solar farms and, soon, Googles data centers. Others are cooking up new ways to store all that wind and solar energy: If Antora gets its way, those batteries could someday be giant blocks of carbon; if Form Energy does, they could also be big containers filled with water and iron. Meanwhile, Infinitum is removing iron, at least from the innards of the conventional motor; by replacing the heavy stuff with printed circuit board, its cutting motors energy by 20%. That could help lighten the load of data centers and all the other places that rely on fans and conveyorsa welcome reminder that even subtle innovations can have massive impacts. 1. BudderflyFor helping resource-hungry businesses get more energy efficient at no upfront costManaging power consumption and squeezing out more efficiency gains are often cited as critical tasks for building a more sustainable, lower-carbon economy, but they can be an unsexy afterthought. Budderfly simplifies and automates the process for businesses that often cant take on the investment themselves, providing energy efficiency upgrades and equipment installations (more efficient HVAC systems and refrigeration equipment; LED lighting; smart thermostats; solar panels, and a suite of sensors), with no upfront cost to the business. Customers then pay Budderfly up to 5% less than what they would have paid their electric company before the upgrades, while Budderfly keeps the rest of the resulting savings. By tapping its deep pool of usage data, analytics, and energy billing expertise, the Connecticut-based company is betting it can cut most clients energy bills by 30%. Last year, Budderfly said it reduced its customers collective energy consumption by 43% compared to the previous year, resulting in a total savings of over 219,1000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, comparable to the emissions from driving an average gasoline-powered vehicle more than 560,000,000 miles.Helping cash-strapped businesses achieve energy savings isnt a completely new idea, but Budderflys simplified contracts and cloud-based platform have made it easier to onboard small- and mid-sized commercial and nonindustrial facilities. And its rich pool of data has helped sharpen the companys ability to pick likely efficiency winners. Last year, it expanded its portfolio to more than 7,000 facilitiesincluding franchises like McDonalds, Orangetheory, and Applebeesdoubling its annual recurring revenue to more than $200 million.And the company is leveraging the power of its growing customer network for even bigger rewards: after acquiring the distributed energy management unit of Sunverge Energy, Budderfly has begun gathering its business customers into virtual power plants, or VPPs, allowing it to better orchestrate and optimize localized energy use. The program, now being tested at 10 sites around the country, also promises a new revenue stream to customers who feed energy back into the grid. In June, the startup also expanded into water management, and has already added more than 400 water accounts. The companys one-of-a-kind modeltaking on costly energy upgrades for businesses that dont have the capital and then sharing in the benefitsisnt cheap. But even if the Trump administration cancels a potential monster loan from the Department of Energy, the company has built a war chest. To continue its expansion into the government sector and beyond, in January, Budderfly secured $400 million in debt financing from Nuveen and Vantage Infrastructure, bringing its total financing to nearly $1 billion. All this from a company that only launched in 2016, at first by selling a device to help monitor electricity use. There are 60 different things you could do to manage [resources] better, says founder and CEO Al Subbloie. But the customer simply wants an outcome. So I said, Ill shift my deliverable to that. Read more about Budderfly, honored as No. 25 on Fast Companys list of the Worlds 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.2. InfinitumFor upgrading the electric motors in data centers and elsewhere to be smaller, quieter, and more efficientThe explosion of AI has sent data center power demand surging, with 30% to 40% of that energy going to motors for cooling equipment. Here and elsewhere, most motors deliver more horsepowerand thus use more energythan are actually needed, so Infinitum redesigned the motor to be dramatically more efficient, by replacing the heavy iron and copper core of the conventional electromagnetic motor with printed circuit boards, and adding a variable frequency drive that allows users to adjust the power supply as needed.The latest generation of its Aircore EC systemunveiled in 2024 for use in data centers, HVAC equipment, pumps, and industrial applicationsis sized according to need, tailored to exact horsepower, torque, speed, and voltage requirements, and built with 60% less copper and none of the heavy iron used in most motors. A new lower voltage option eliminates the need for a step-down transformer, improving energy efficiency and reducing equipment complexity. And with easily replaceable parts, a modular design helps further lighten the motors environmental footprint. The result, says Infinitum, is a motor that is upwards of 20% more efficient, in addition to being smaller, lighter, and quieter than conventional systems. More than just data centers stand to benefit: Electric motors are among the hungriest energy consumers on the planet, accounting forabout 70% of the electricity used by industrial businesses, and up to 40% of all electricity use worldwide. For now, the energy-intensive AI boom is helping drive growth. In 2024, Infinitum doubled its data center deployments and ramped up its revenue by 91% over the previous year. After raising an additional $35 million in a Series E funding round, in November it won a $34 million grant from the Department of Energy to begin work on a new, more efficient factory in Rockdale, Texas. By the end of the year, Infinitum says its existing plants in Mexico will be able to produce 200,000 motors, with efficiencies equivalent to keeping the electricity from 40,000 homes annually off the grid. Read more about Infinitum, honored as No. 19 on Fast Companys list of the Worlds 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.3. Anthro EnergyFor building lighter, safer, longer-lasting and super-durable lithium-ion electrolytesMost lithium-ion batteries are made using a highly flammable liquid electrolyte, which can be a problem if the battery fails or overheats. But Anthro Energys advanced electrolyte material isnt like other kinds: Made with a patented, bendable polymer, its not flammable, and it provides a mechanical strength that prevents short circuit incidents while helping the battery achieve improved cycle life.In 2024, just three years after spinning out of Stanford University, the company marked its first commercial implementation, announced a flurry of safety and performance advances, and watched its electrolyte breeze through rigorous U.S. Army tests, including the kind of forceful penetration, impact, overheating, and overcharging that easily results in fires in conventional batteries. While manufacturing costs are still higher than traditional electrolytes, Anthros semi-solid substance can be conveniently injected into existing battery designs, lowering barriers to scalability. (Its newest electrolyte formula, called Anthro Proteus, changes into a solid inside the battery during formation.) Already, Anthro says it counts household name electronics firms among its customers, as well as the Department of Defense, which is using its batteries for vehicles and other applications.Now equipped with $20 million in Series A financing and $18.4 million in tax credits, Anthro is planning to build a large-scale factory inside an existing manufacturing site in Louisville, Kentucky. The company envisions that the 25 GWh facility will produce 12,000 metric tons of advanced electrolytes each year, create 114 full-time jobs, and serve as the first large-scale advanced electrolyte production facility on U.S. soil.4. Form EnergyFor using little more than rust to build giant, safe batteries that keep the grid running smoothlyIntegrating renewable energy sources like solar and wind into the power grid is dependent on long-duration battery storage. Form Energys shipping container-sized solution harnesses iron, water, air and rust, in a process that can store energy for days or even weeks, at a lower cost and with greater safety than more conventional batteries. Each battery is a 40-foot container filled with cells that include a plate of iron submerged in water with dissolved salts. As the battery discharges, it pulls in oxygen and the iron starts to rust. When it charges, the oxygen is released from the iron, returning it to an unrusted state.The systems have yet to be deployed at utility scale, but the company has managed to rack up more commercial orders than most long-duration energy storage startups, with 14 GWh of projects in the pipeline. In July, just a year after first breaking ground, Form completed construction of its first large manufacturing plant, a 550,000-square-foot facility inside a former steel mill in West Virginia. And with Minnesotas Great River Energy, its planning to switch on its first deployment in Cambridge, Minnesota, in late 2025. Last year Form also won $147 million in funding from the Department of Energy to deploy a giant battery system in a former paper mill in Maine. When completed in 2028, it will be the largest battery installation on Earth, capable of discharging 85 megawatts of power for up to 11 hours in a particularly strained part of New Englands grid. Recently, the company notched $405 million in a Series F funding round, including investments from Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners. Another investor, GE Vernova, said it would partner with Form to boost its manufacturing and supply chain operations.5. ULC TechnologiesFor using robots to help utilities quickly fix underground electric and gas linesUpgrading the grid for reliability and resilience will be critical for the future economy, but all those cables also mean a lot of hands-on work in hazardous conditions. ULC built a robot designed to automate the splicing and termination of medium voltage cables, enhancing the power grid while significantly improving utility worker safety. Developed through a collaboration with Con Edison, the machine aims to automate cable end preparation: Its capable of stripping, shorting, and cutting the cable from outside the manhole with no human intervention. This reduces worker exposure to high voltages and improves the accuracy and safety of thousands of cable splices performed every year.After a medium voltage feeder cable outage last February, Con Edison asked ULC to field trial the bot for the first time in an emergency scenario. The machine completed the worlds first fully remote medium voltage cable end preparation with no human intervention, taking approximately 30 minutes for each phase of the cable.The Hauppauge, N.Y.-based company already has deep experience in sub-surface robotics: Since it was first used in 2010, its signature robot CISBOT (Cast Iron Sealing Bot) has become an unparalleled tool for remote gas line maintenance. Many cast iron mains in the U.S. and the UK were laid during the Victorian era, and the switch to natural gas in the 1970s has accelerated erosion of the sealants that protect their joints. Once inside a pipe, CISBOT snakes hundreds of feet in either direction and performs sealing remotely, enabling utilities to extend the lifespan of their pipes by 50 years while avoiding dangerous human work and extensive digging. New versions of the robot trialed in 2024 bring the technology to smaller and medium-diameter gas mains. At the same time, its Drawdown Compressor Technology helps repair crews reduce emissions by extracting natural gas from the pipeline that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and re-introduce it back into the active gas network. Last year ULC signed new contracts with two large utilities in New Jersey, where regulations have mandated faster leak repairs, and continued to expand its multi-city fleet of CISBOTs, with over 60,000 joint remediations and counting. In 2024, ULC also receied recognition from the U.S. Air Forces innovation arm for a completely different kind of robot concept: a machine, developed in partnership with materials startup Group IQ, thats designed for another kind of dangerous job: rapidly repairing bombed airfields.6. Antora EnergyFor storing electricity from renewables in the form of white-hot heatWind and solar are too often stranded from the storage that can make them as cheap and reliable as coal. Antoras shipping-container-sized thermal batteries, made of three-foot blocks of carbon, store electricity from renewables in the form of white hot heat, which can be converted to electricity or simply used as heat for industrial processes. That option is critical: Most heavy industries depend on high temperatures that renewables and many types of long duration storage cant provide.In 2024, the six-year-old company began production at its first dedicated factory near its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and demonstrated breakthrough heat-to-electric conversion efficiency for its thermophotovoltaic cells (similar to the technology solar panels use to generate electricity). It also reached the highest temperature that had been demonstrated for thermal batteries at full scale, storing energy above 1,800°C. The companys investors include heavyweights like Laurene Powell Jobs Emerson Collective, the Nature Conservancy, and Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures, most recently through a $170 million Series B funding round, among the biggest climate tech deals in 2024. Last year Antora also earned a $14.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Energys ARPA-E to unlock commercial-scale manufacturing, and forged partnerships with Con Edison, Shell, and Summit Materials. 7. VertivFor taming the energy demands of hyperscale AI data centersMany of the environmental costs of AI relate to just keeping those complex chips from overheating: cooling still accounts for roughly 40% of data centers massive and steadily growing electricity consumption, Vertiv, a master in precision air conditioning, has been trying to meet that demand with new approaches to cooling and power management, including CoolPhase Flex, an architecture launched in 2024 that integrates liquid cooling with air-based technologies in a single package.Orders are also growing across the U.S. and Africa for its DynaFlex BESS, a new battery energy storage system designed to let data centers replace their backup diesel generators and seamlessly switch between different types of renewable power, including a hydrogen fuel cell option. It also launched a prefabricated modular data center system, designed to reduce the time to deploy AI infrastructure by as much as 50%. Its an 80-year-old company, with a history that dates back to the invention of the computer-room cooling systems by Ralph Liebert, who sold IBM its first cooling in 1965. But lately, its data center expertise has helped its stock price soar more than tenfold in the last two years, as the cold realities of blistering AI demand began to set in.8. Intersect PowerFor combining batteries, renewables, and lots of cash to green the grid fasterIn Intersect Powers home state of Texas, where severe storms have cut power and left hundreds dead over the past decade, upgrades to the grid cant come soon enough. Rather than waiting for transmission infrastructure to come to its massive solar-plus-storage facilities, the startup is focused on co-locating with customers, be they data centers, factories, or green fuel plants. That model allows the company to raise funding faster and build more quickly. In 2024, armed with $837 million in financing, it deployed three nearly 1 GWh battery-solar plants at lightning speed, assembling its battery energy storage systems with the help of one of the largest ever orders of Teslas utility-scale 3.9 MWh Megapacks.Then, in November, it announced a landmark deal: a decade-long partnership with Google to build a set of energy parks where AI data centers will flourish alongside an estimated $20 billion in renewable energy and energy storage. Another round of funding$800 million, led by Google and TPGwill help Intersect get started on the first park, which is set to open in 2027. For the nine-year-old startup, working behind the meter is a speedy response to the sluggishness of grid connections and upgrades, and to a market that still doesnt incentivize new battery storage. Originally a flipper of clean energy projects, now it operates its own sites, raising money through equity and loan financing priced according to the market, rather than with the less risky, long-term power purchase agreements that typically finance grid-scale projects. Over the next three years Intersect now expects to triple the size of its total portfolio.9. PowinFor scaling up giant battery packs to the size of coal-fired power plantsOregon-based Powin helps utilities integrate renewables into the grid with the help of its giant battery systems, built with a suite of sensors and software designed to manage performance and power down to the cell level. To make the green transition a little easier, in 2024, it released the Powin Pod, a compact battery system that holds 5MWh in a 20-foot container. The form factor allows utilities and developers to store up to 50% more energy in the same footprint, while on-board software allows administrators to track and predict cell temperature, voltage, performance, and other factors to ensure optimal operation.After helping power the 2024 Super Bowl (with 564 batteries at NV Energys Arrow Canyon solar farm in Moapa, Nevada), in July the company unveiled its latest giant storage project, at a former Michigan coal plant. Set to become the largest stand-alone energy storage site in the Great Lakes region when it opens in 2026, the Trenton Channel Power Plant will store 220 MW, or enough to power about 40,000 homes for a day. This year Powin anticipates the launch of Australias Waratah Super Battery project, set to be one of the worlds largest battery systems. In October, Powin secured $200 million in debt financing from KKR to help advance its innovation and expansion in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. It also announced a partnership with BHE Renewables to deliver what would be one of the countrys largest solar and storage microgrids, in Ravenswood, West Virginia, which will provde renewable energy to manufacture titanium for the global aerospace industry. Powin is set to begin initial deliveries to the site this year, with plans to reach full capacity in 2027.10. 24M TechnologiesFor solving range anxiety (and battery fires)The MIT spinout 24M has been developing a battery designed to be safer, cheaper, cleaner, and longer-lasting. Thats because it uses a semi-solid lithium metal as an electrolyte, rather than lithium-ion, which gives the battery more energy density and requires fewer materials, along with sensors and a unique separator that helps prevent the aberrations that cause shorts and fires. A new electrolyte addition, Eternalyte, enables what 24M calls a 1,000 mile battery, while a process the company calls LiForever makes 98% of a batterys material recyclable.The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company builds its own cells and licenses its technology to other battery companies and automakers, including a large unnamed manufacturer that began taking delivery of its separator-equipped 1,000-mile cells in late 2024. (One likely candidate is Volkswagen, which acquired a 25% stake in 24M in 2022.) Japanese electronics giant Kyocera, which was the first 24M partner to commercialize the startups SemiSolid electrode manufacturing process, also announced plans to double production of the cells for use in its residential energy storage system. In September, the startup opened a new factory in Thailand, where it began producing cells for an Indian automaker, and closed another financing round totaling $87 million, valuing the company at $1.3 billion.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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