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If a job is about more than the title or even the paybut also a chance to find a deeper meaning and sense of purposethe honorees in the inaugural class of most innovative companies in economic development are chasing a similar ideal, just on a larger scale. These accelerators, city agencies, and public-private partnerships are working to cultivate innovation economies in their regionsand in a sector that often (and understandably) focuses on the headline numbersjobs created, dollars investedthese honorees did more than just stoke the economic engine; they afforded spaces for new narratives and creative communities.Some are working on reinvention: Huntsville, the Alabama town famous for its history with NASAs rocketry program, has remarketed itself as a music, arts, and cultural destination; while Hilliard, an Ohio city of less than 40,000 in the Columbus area, continues to build out infrastructure to incubate innovative startups. Others found ways to expand the opportunities within existing hometown industries: NCBiotech built pathways to bring more local residents into the Research Triangles booming life sciences sector. Michigan Central, an old train station converted into a 30-acre innovation campus in Detroit, opened its doors last July. STACKTs small-business incubation concept, comprised of repurposed shipping containers, is breathing new life into Torontos street life. And PIDC, a public-private investment group in Philadelphia, is redeveloping the centuries-old U.S. Naval Shipyard with a $1 billion diversity pledge. Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, seeks to build out the future of cutting-edge quantum computing on the site of a former steel plant site in Chicago.Of course, crafting entirely new narrative works, too. Timbuktoo Initiative, launched last year by the UN Development Program, is working to improve venture capital pipelines to entrepreneurs across the continent. Sustainability has also been a driver for development: Bristol City Leap, in the UK, is a citywide decarbonization program that will create hundreds of local green jobs; while Lamu Blue Carbon Project, a blue carbon credit program, will preserve mangrove habitats in coastal Kenya. 1. City of HuntsvilleFor making music, and supporting musicians, a centerpiece of a citys business growthFor many years, Alabamas Rocket City, so called due to its long history with NASAs rocketry program, has been more like Rock City. Huntsville has made music a key focus of economic growth, starting with a 2018 city musical audit championed by Mayor Tommy Battle, that quickly grew into a larger effort to build a creative ecosystem.While this past years marquee event, the inaugural South Star Music Festival, was partially canceled due to bad weather, the changes wrought by this effort are visibleand vocal. 2024 marked the conclusion of the citys five-year plan, passed in 2019, to focus on music-related development, including hiring a music board and full-time music officer and investing in music programs and facilities in school and libraries. Across town, a constellation of new, smaller venues, such the-middle-school-turned-event-center Campus No. 805 and the multistage retail space Stovehousenot to mention the Music Ambassador Program, which started in 2023 as a way to promote local musicians touring efforts and so far has provided support to more than 40 tourshave continued to attract more creative talent. The citys locally owned Orion Amphitheater, the nexus of the $2.2 billion Midcity development, has become a strong tourist draw.Huntsville has always seen this investment as not just a quality-of-life improvement, but as an economically advantageous way to attract a young workforce. As evidence for its appeal, the city points to its growing population, which has added 10,000 people a year since 2020; a 2.8% unemployment rate; and 2,500 new jobs added in the past year. 2. Michigan CentralFor turning a Midwest architectural icon into a startup hub for 21st century mobilityThe redevelopment of a formerly vibrant train station into a $1 billion innovation campus has become the latest symbol of Detroits efforts to resurge. A walkable, 30-acre district in the Corktown neighborhood, Michigan Central repurposed decades-old buildings from the citys heyday to contribute to its current renaissance. Ford Motor Co. purchased and rehabbed an abandoned railway station and 18-story tower, restoring a decrepit shell to its original Art Deco sheen, while an unused book depository reopened as a startup hub, Newlab, which attracted more than 100 startups and over $700 million in funding in just over a year after its 2023 opening. The tech from one startup, Electreon, is embedded in the nations first EV charging road. But Michigan Central doesnt just offer an architecturally striking space to incubate ideas; it provides a test bed. The mix of startups, mobility innovations, and a multinational corporation in the form of Ford fosters a varied ecosystem of talent, while the campus mobility lab and Advanced Aerial Innovation Region designation allow startups to test and iterate on their ideas in real world situations. Fast-track permitting from the city is accelerating the path to innovation, with the goal of turning the once-busy station into a hub of a different sort.3. Bristol City LeapFor turning a blueprint for a more sustainable city into an economic engineBristol, in southwest England, became the first city in the U.K. to adopt a net zero goal back in 2019. But the challenging road required to hit that target inspired the city government to see out new kinds of partnerships to meet that bold pledge. In 2023, city council announced Bristol City Leap, a substantial initiative to decarbonize local businesses and develop 1,000-plus jobs by leveraging $1 billion in investments to make the city a testing ground for community change. City leaders engaged the decarbonization company Ameresco and Vattenfall Heat UK, which supplies district heating systems, to help transform Bristols energy system. Over the next five years, investments in the seaside city will create an EV charging network, add heat pumps and solar panels to schools, refurbish city-owned housing, and deploy renewables in tandem with partners like the Bristol Energy Cooperative. Last year, the initiative picked up momentum, distributing $350 million in grants and building to two sections of Bristols heat network, a district heating system that will pipe hot water warmed by heat pumps around the city. The initiative will also benefit local industry by slashing energy costs. Bristol has a reputation for climate action and community support for renewables; this city-scale move shows that it is raising its own bar.4. STACKTFor giving small Canadian businesses the community, and boost, they need to succeedTorontos STACKT market, an outdoor bazaar built from repurposed shipping containers, has fostered a unique commercial community since 2019. In 2024, the founders decided to expand on that vision with a new platform and digital strategy designed to support budding entrepreneurs. The STACKTx network seeks to help small stores and thrive, with the goal of supporting the growth of 11,000 small businesses across Canada in the first year.STACKTxs strategy starts with a free digital platform that includes digital resources, mentorship, information about grants and community partnerships, and discounts on marketing and product development services. 5,000 businesses have joined so far. In November, the organization hosted a social conference, featuring opening remarks from the countrys minister of small business, Rechie Valdez. STACKTx will help retail concepts take a low-cost test run with monthly storefront grants, which will give entrepreneurs a month-long retail lease in Toronto, and hopes eventually to expand to Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver. These grants aim to give storefront space to new businesses without the burden of long-term rent agreements and high overhead.5. Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics ParkFor turning a 20th-century steel plant into a center for 21st-century quantum computingOnce compared to the ruins of the Colosseum and Roman aqueducts, the former U.S. Steel plant South Works, in South Side, Chicago, presents a gargantuan urban void. Home to factory complexes that once employed 20,000 workers, the site has been the focus of several redevelopment crusades. A new plan, to build a quantum computing center there that will tap into the sites generous electrical hookups, hopes to once again make this campus a central economic driver. After a successful push by Chicago Quantum Exchange, a group founded to advance the industrys growth, Illinois economic development officials agreed to provide $500 million in investments and grants to build the 128-acre Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Flagship firm PsiQuantum will install numerous quantum computing systems onsite, including a 300,000-square-foot Quantum Computer Operations Center, and the announcement has already attracted additional high-tech firms like Eero-Q as well as DARPA, the Defense Departments investment arm for defense technologies, which will build a national testing ground for quantum technologies.6. Lamu Blue Carbon ProjectFor turning coastal carbon credits into a scheme for local revitalizationPreserving trees and forests through carbon credits has been an effort rife with mixed results. But the new Go Blue initiative, which seeks to preserve vital mangrove forests and revitalize the rural economy of Kenyas northernmost coastal county, Lamu, offers a new vision of positive environmental and economic development. The effort, launched in 2023, aims to preserve nearly 10,000 acres of mangroves, considered to be one of the most effective carbon sinks on the planet, and funnel sales of the resulting credits back to villagers in the countrys northern coastal communities. The effort represents an expansion of similar programs in the country, like Vanga Blue Forest. The successful Mikoko Pamoja Project, the worlds first-ever blue carbon effort to fund the preservation of marine carbon sinks, generated $130,000 annually to local villagers. With more than half of the planets mangrove forests at risk, programs that meld local, sustainable growth and conservation offer a new way to achieve green economic engines.7. PhiladelphiasFor prioritizing equity in Philadelphias real estate projectsWhen Philadelphias public-private investment corporation, PIDC, acquired the 1,200-acre Navy Yard property in 2000, the former military site offered myriad possibilities. PIDC determined that regardless of the direction development took, it needed to be equitable. As part of the vast transformation of the site to support the regions burgeoning life sciences industry, the organization approved an ambitious joint venture with Ensemble Investments and Mosaic Development Partners on a project with a $1 billion diversity pledge, including using 20% of its equity investments on minority- and women-owned enterprises and funding extensive local hiringand workforce development initiatives. PIDC leadership at the time called it one of the most intentional and inclusive economic opportunity initiatives in the history of this city. Local architecture and design firms have greatly benefited from this approach; minority-owned businesses designed and constructed the 2500 League Island Blvd life sciences development, a rarity in the real estate world.8. NCBiotechFor making sure the benefits of the biotech boom ripple across more of the workforceNorth Carolinas booming biotech sector, which now employs 75,000 people and has $88 billion in annual economic impact, has been one of the nations biggest economic development success stories, turning the state into a science powerhouse. But in recent years, life sciences expansion has struggled to employ more North Carolinians. Local companies, desperate to hire trained staff, are poaching from each other, or bringing in new hires from out-of-state.To help bolster the workforce with more local talent, NCBiotech launched the Accelerate NC Life Sciences Manufacturing coalition, with funding from the U.S. Commerce Departments Build Back Better Regional Challenge, launched a multi-pronged campaign in September 2022 to break down local barriers to employment. Between starting new programs withuniversities statewide, investing in infrastructure to bring labs and manufacturing sites to underserved communities, and kickstarting ambassador, apprenticeship, and awareness-raising campaigns, the Research Triangle has helped hundreds enter the industry. Unique biomanufacturing courses at historically Black universities across the state offer quicker, accredited means of providing training to diverse talent pools. More importantly, the campaign is creating a blueprint of how to build up a high-tech industry while shrinking, rather than expanding, issues of inequity. 9. Timbuktoo InitiativeFor accelerating a startup boom across AfricaIt can often seem like the bulk of venture capital flows to the companies and founders who need it the least. To capitalize on Africas nascent tech industry, the UN Development Program launched Timbuktoo last year, an effort to raise $1 billion in the next decade to fund startup hubs and support 10,000 new companies. The continent has experienced rapid growth in startup venture funding, which has grown six times faster than the global average since 2022, as well as an explosion in tech savviness among younger populations. But the funding hasnt kept pace with the needs of new firms and ideas, nor expanded beyond the four countries leading Africas startup scene, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria. To remedy that, this initiative blends commercial and government capital, leveraging support from the UN as well as universities, corporations, investors, and development partners. Timbuktoo has so far launched a fintech hub in Lagos, Nigeria, that brings together 42 companies from 31 countries, and is planning similar spaces across the continent, including a healthcare hub in Rwanda and a green-tech hub in Kenya.10. City of HilliardFor proving that a small Columbus, Ohio, suburb can build a high-tech innovation ecosystemA small Ohio suburb of less than 40,000 people doesnt sound like the most likely site for a startup hub. But Hilliard City Lab, a savvy buildout of the infrastructure and expertise that innovative firms need to thrive, has become a key incubator in the region.The city isnt swarming with VCs, so the program made targeted investments and partnerships count, including the construction of a 60-mile-long fiber optic network, the building of Ohio Manufacturing Innovation Center, and partnerships with local firms like Converge Technologies to provide space and expertise. The city also set up an AI sandbox, a testing site that lets firms evaluate artificial intelligence services without the need to spend hefty sums on cloud servers.Hilliard gives innovators another important form of support: cash. The city has awarded nearly $1 million in grants to 32 projects in the last four years to help seed small startups, half of which set up shop in 2024. This new test bed has already created results and new innovations, such as a first responder drone for 911 calls, a sewer overflow detector, an algae boat to clean ponds and lakes, and a virtual scoreboard for watching local sporting events. 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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