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Topping this years list of MIC honorees in the Asia-Pacific region is a company so innovative that when it emerged from stealth, Fast Company judges and editors were late in the judging process, so we decided to add an unprecedented 11th spot to this category. Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek launched a pair of state-of-the-art, open-source AI models that require far less computing power and capital than those of Western companies, sending shockwaves through Silicon Valley and the Wall Street firms that fund them. Several more Chinese tech companies round out the top slots: Baidu, which runs Chinas top search engine, started offering driverless taxi services last summer in select cities and is already outperforming Googles Waymo robotaxis where it operates. Shenzen company Honor released its Magic V3 phone in July, one of the worlds slimmest folding phones. Xiaomi, known for developing smartphones, entered the electric vehicle market last spring, releasing its first car, the SU7; by the end of the year, after just nine months on the market, its annual sales topped the Tesla Model 3 in China.A handful of 2025 honorees focus on ecological innovations. Lodestone Energy opened its first solar farms last year and already is New Zealands leading solar producer. Lodestone is also pioneering agrivoltaics in New Zealand, working with limited land resources to combine solar farms with agricultural and farming land. Who Gives a Crap, Australias well-known sustainable toilet paper brand, expanded to the U.S. in May; look out for its colorful, tissue paperwrapped TP at a Whole Foods near you.Other innovators on the list include an Indian aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider (Agnikul Cosmos); an autonomous robotics company in Singapore that specializes in industrial applications (Venti Technologies); and an Australian AI-powered text-to-image model that set a new bar for image generation, receiving praise for its accuracy, visual fidelity, and creative control (Leonardo.Ai).1. DeepSeekFor demonstrating the power of open-source AIChinese company DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the AI and investment communities in January with the release of a pair of state-of-the-art AI models that used far less computing power and capital than anyone had previously thought possible. The innovations were borne of necessity: trade restrictions under the Biden administration limited the companys access to less powerful GPUsNvidia H800s instead of the cutting-edge H100sand DeepSeek researchers had to develop clever workarounds to save GPU power. They included training the smaller R1 model on the larger model, DeepSeek-V3, to be a reasoning model; refining the mixture-of-experts framework, a neural network that segments a large language model by specialized knowledge, any one of which can handle queries while the rest of the models parameters remain idle; and compressing some of the data that the model must retain on its way toward an answer. All of this saved a lot of GPU power without sacrificing the models intelligence. Whats more, DeepSeek then published its work in research papers, thereby sharing its AI efficiencies with developers around the world. Silicon Valley, where questions of whether AI has been over-valuated have been swirling for months, is still reckoning with the fallout.Read more about DeepSeek, honored as No. 12 on Fast Companys list of the Worlds 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.2. BaiduFor deploying the worlds largest autonomous driving experimentChinese multinational technology company Baidu specializes in search engine services and artificial intelligence, but the internet services giant has also been expanding into robotaxis. Apollo Go, Baidus autonomous ride-hailing service, now operates the worlds largest autonomous driving experiment, in the city of Wuhan. Last July, the company launched a 24/7 service of more than 400 Apollo Go robotaxis that provide driverless rides around the city marking a significant milestone for the sector. The company also operates autonomous taxis in Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. Apollo Go provided approximately 1.1 million rides across China in Q4 2024 alonea year-over-year growth of 36%and has given 9 million cumulative rides. To date, Apollo Gos cars have traveled more than 80 million miles. In May, the company began testing the Apollo RT6 on public roads, its sixth-generation robotaxi and the first to be built from the ground up (rather than retrofitting existing vehicles). The vehicle costs less than $30,000, which CEO Robin Li said on an earnings call would help establish a robust foundation for making commuting more affordable. The company intends to roll its robotaxi service outside of mainland China, to Singapore and the Middle East, and already has acquired a license to test its autonomous vehicles in Hong Kong.3. Lodestar EnergyFor bringing utility-scale solar power to New ZealandInspired by its Australian neighbors and the countrys successful embrace of solar power, New Zealand has been steadily increasing its solar capacity by shifting toward larger-scale operations. Lodestone Energy, which launched in 2021, opened its first two solar farms last year, named Kohir and Rangitaiki. With respective capacities of 33 megawatts and 32 megawatts, they were the two largest solar farms in the countryuntil Lodestone opened the 42-megawatt Te Herenga o Te R, in January. Lodestone a specializes in utility-scale photovoltaic farms that connect directly to the grid, allowing the company to sell its electricity right back to the local utility. Te Herenga o Te R alone has the capacity to power nearly 10,000 homes.In New Zealand, where the sheep still outnumber humans and farmland is limited, Lodestone is pioneering the use of agrivoltaics, utilizing the same agricultural lan for both sheep grazing and solar power generation. The practice is particularly valued for the economic benefits it provides to farmers, who receive rent from lease agreements and a percentage of the solar assets profits. The grazing livestock naturally cuts back the vegetation growing around and beneath the solar modules. Everyone wins, even the sheep. Lodestone plans to break ground this year on Haldon Station, which eventually will have a 180-MW capacity. In the meantime, it plans to open two smaller solar farms, and the company expects by the end of the year to produce enough energy to power 45,000 homes across New Zealand.4. HonorFor developing the thinnest-ever foldable smart phoneThough their share of the overall smartphone market is in the low single digits, foldable smartphones have grown slowly but steadily popular as phone companies release new offerings. One of the best is the Magic V3 by Honor, the Chinese company formerly known as Huawei. Launched in 2024 and with a profile that measures 9.2 millimeters folded and 4.4 millimeters unfolded, the Magic V3 counts among the worlds thinnest folding phones. (For context, Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold6 comes in at 12.1 mm folded and 5.6 mm unfolded.) When closed, the Magic V3 feels to be around the same thickness as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and users say that when opened, the fold crease in the screen is barely noticeable. Users also have praised the phones features, including external and internal displays, wireless charging, a long battery life (around 15 hours with moderate use, compared to the 15 Pro Maxs 8.5 hours), water resistance, and high durability despite its sleek profile. The Magic V2 was already overtaking Samsung in Western Europes foldable phone market when the V3 began selling outside of China. By September, Honor was outselling its Korean competitor in the foldable phone market; by December, the Magic V3 comprised 21% of all Honors device sales.5. Agnikul CosmosFor launching a single-piece, 3D-printed rocket engine into suborbital flightEver since the government reformed its space policy in 2020 to allow for greater participation from startups, Indias private space sector has been expanding in every direction. Agnikul Cosmos, an aerospace manufacturer and commercial launch service provider based in Chennai, represents this shift toward privatization. Last May, after four failed attempts, the company successfully completed a test launch for Agnibaan, its small-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying 100-kilogram payloads into low orbit. While its competitors must rely on the government space agencys launchpad to get to space, Agnibaan launched from Agnikols very own launchpad, a first for the budding industry.The sub-orbital test launch in May marked the second such achievement for an Indian private space company, following Skyroot Aerospaces Vikram S rocket launch in November 2022. It also demonstrated the worlds first single-piece 3D-printed semi-cryogenic rocket engine, the Agnikul-built Agnilet. (Semi-cryogenic rocket engines use a mix of kerosene and ultracold liquid oxygen for fuel, which translates to a high thrust-to-weight ratio, cost-effectiveness, and operational simplicity. The kerosene takes up less room than the liquid hydrogen used in fully cryogenic rocket engines, freeing up space for more payloads.) Unlike traditional rocket engines, which can take up to 12 weeks to manufacturer, Agnikulwhose name is a portmanteau derived from the Sanskrit words for fire (, or agni)and an ancient type of schooling (, or gurukul)says it can produce two of its Agnilet engines each week.6. Xiaomi TechnologyFor bringing its smartphone knowhow into EVsXiaomi Technology is primarily known as the worlds third-largest smartphone maker. But the Chinese electronics company ventured into a very different market in 2024: electric vehicles. Its maiden vehicle, the SU7, launched last March to great acclaim. The full-size sedan matches or beats the Tesla Model 3 on performance, range, and cabin technology and starts at the relatively low price of around $30,000. The SU7 is also outfitted with a smart device ecosystem that syncs with Xiaomis other products. Industry observers were especially surprised by the great user reviews; no less a fan than Ford CEO Jim Farley sang its praises on a podcast last October, recounting how hed shipped the fantastic SU7 from Shanghai to Chicago and driven it for six months, and now I dont want to give it up.Xiaomi reportedly sold out of its entire SU7 production run of 2024 on the first day it was available. By the end of the year, the company had sold more than 130,000 cars. In October, the company unveiled a prototype of the luxury SU7 Ultra. At a road test at Germanys legendary motorsports track Nürburgring Nordschleife, the SU7 Ultra broke the record for the fastest four-door sedan. It went on sale this March; Xiaomi plans to release an electronic SUV, the YU7, this summer.7. Leonardo.AiFor creating a text-to-image AI tool cool enough to catch Canvas eyeAs artificial intelligence companies continue the quest to perfect a model for generating images from nothing but text prompts, the Australian startup Leonardo.Aifounded just three years agostood out in 2024 for the June debut of its first text-to-image model, Phoenix. Built in-house, the technology set a new bar for image generation, receiving paise for its accuracy, visual fidelity, and creative control. The next month, the design software giant Canva acquired Leonardo.AI, which will continue to run as a separate entity. Though the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, media reports based on documents from its largest shareholder estimate that Canva paid $320 million for the startup, just two years old at the time.Leonardo.Ais founders originally conceived the company as a resource for game designers. But they quickly broadened its mandate to appeal to advertisers, marketers, and designers of all stripes. At the time of acquisition, the startup boasted 19 million registered users. In October, Canva announced Dream Lab, a content creation tool powered by Phoenix, making Leonardo.AIs technology available to its more than 200 million monthly users. The tool allows Canvas users to render images in any one of 19 styles from written prompts aloneand thats just so far. More features are coming soon, including photo prompts and shape references that will allow for more of one of the Leonardo.Ai teams guiding principles: user customization.8. Who Gives a CrapFor bringing cheeky, eco-friendly toilet paper around the globeYou may not know thisand you may not wish to knowbut theres a good chance your favorite toilet paper brand is helping to destroy one of our planets most sensitive ecological systems: Canadas epic boreal forest. (Check for yourself via the Natural Resources Defense Councils annual The Issue with Tissue.) One of the brands that received an A rating this year, Who Gives a Crap, will make you forget all about the scratchy, sandpaper-y eco-friendly TP of yore. The Melbourne-based company launched in 2012. But until last year, if you wanted to get your hands on one of its sustainable, 100% recycled rolls outside Australia, you had to order it online. (At least the company sends its plastic-free packages via carbon-neutral shipping.) But last May in the U.S., its colorful, tissue paperwrapped TP began popping up in select Whole Foods. By the dog days of summer, Who Gives a Crap was available in Whole Foods nationwide.The company is now betting for the first time on more than just toilet paper. In October, it released a three-product line of sustainable garbage bags, for trash, compost, and dog poo. The trash bags are composed of 100% recycled plastic, and the compostable food waste bags decompose within three months at an industrial facility.Who Gives a Crap makes a point to give back, donating half of all profits to charities and NGOs focused on improved access to water, toilets, and hygienic care. To date, they have donated around $12.5 million.9. Venti TechnologiesFor doing the heavy lifting at one of the worlds largest ports, in SingaporeThe self-driving-vehicle sector is teeming with companies in competition to make it big on the open road. Venti Technologies, based in Singapore and launched by a team with roots in MIT, stands out for focusing on autonomous technologies for industrial usespecifically in low-speed environments like ports, airports, and warehouses. The companys suite of special-purpose algorithms is designed to optimize cargo container transportation and works with a wide range of vehicles, allowing the AI-enabled technology to move varying weight loads and distances through complex spaces and changing routes.Venti is entering the fifth year of its partnership agreement with the Port of Singapore Authority to provide self-driving vehicles that transport containers among PSAs five terminals in the island country. A fleet of dozens of cargo movers guided by Ventis technology work 24 hours a day and perform around 90% of the inter-yard jobs. The tasks involve more than just moving containers from point A to point B: The vehicles must also be able to interact with sophisticated machinery, like cranes, and load and unload cargo with precision. The AI-enabled vehicles reduce PSAs handling costs for goods and improve the safety conditions. (Though it does so by replacing people with machines.)Last year, Ventis vehicles drove 180,000 kilometers and moved an average of 5,000 containers each week. The company also worked with Katoen Natie, a Belgian international logistics company, and says it recently locked in a contract with Norfolk Southern, one of the largest railroad companies in the U.S.10. IntellectFor expanding mental healthcare access across the Asia Pacific regionIntellect, founded in Singapore in 2019 by Theodoric Chew and Asias fastest-growing mental health platform, hopes to drastically transform mental healthcare across the Asia Pacific region. The company offers AI-enabled virtual care and tele-consultations via its digital platform; services include counseling, clinical therapy, and medicine management, as well as screening assessments for mental health disorders.One of Chows primary goals when he launched Intellect was to increase access to support wherever they operated. Today, Intellect collectively serves 4 million people in 30 languages across 60 countries. The company partnered with Asias largest private healthcare group, IHH Healthcare, in 2023 to offer digital mental health programs for IHH patients, along with its staff; its corporate clients have included Dell, ByteDance, Shell, McDonalds, Singtel, and Visa. Last July, Intellect launched its flagship mental health clinic in Singapore, which blends virtual and IRL care; today, it has six clinics. The company has raised $27 million in funding to date; it plans in the next year to open clinics in Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan.11. VowFor growing foie gras in a lab from quail cellsLab-grown meat has had a tough go of it. Expensive and difficulty to produce at scale, the high-tech proteins biggest problem is perception. A lot of people are grossed out by the prospect, considering it sterile, or overly synthetic, or not really food. As the only company in the world selling cultured meat, Australian biotech startup Vow is in the unique position of shaping the publics perception. Its doing so with spreadable meats.The company knows how to make a splash. Its first foray into cultured meat was actually a meatball made using wooly mammoth DNA that Vow unveiled two years ago at the Nemo science museum, in Amstedam. But the wooly mammoth meatball wasnt for consumption. The company launched its first commercially available product in Singapore last April: Forged Parfait, Vows version of liver pâté, with a pink hue and a deeply savory flavor. Seven months later, it revealed its second product of the year, Forged Gras, with the subtly gamey flavor and creamy texture of real foie gras. Both are grown in a bioreactor from the cells of a Japanese quail egg.After restructuring the team toward the end of last year, Vow says its focus for 2025 will be improving popular perceptions of lab-grown meat. While its products are available in select restaurants in Singapore and Hong Kong, the company is awaiting regulatory approval in Australia and is seeking the same from the FDA in the U.S. The company can back up its build-it-and-they-will-come-around mentality with data: it has retained 100% of its restaurant partners, and 93% of diners said theyd gladly eat a Forged dish again.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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