Electricity bills around the United States are skyrocketing. (CNN). In Pennsylvania, household electricity prices have shot up nearly 50 percent over the past five years. (Inside Climate News). Ratepayers in Ohio and West Virginia have also experienced dramatic price increases. Low and middle-income households have had a hard time keeping up. (Pa. Capital-Star). In 2025, nearly 290,000 Pennsylvania households had their electric service disconnected for falling behind on their payments — a 14 percent increase from 2024. (Pa. PUC).
Losing electric service can harm physical and mental health. (ABC News). In the most extreme cases, disconnection can result in homelessness or death. (Nature). To “keep the lights on,” families may forgo food, medicine, child care, and other basic needs. (Pa. Capital-Star).
Given the stakes, it’s important to understand how electricity prices are set, why costs are going up, and, most importantly, what we can do about it.
When I moved to Virginia after college in 2016, I wanted a quiet neighborhood to call home, close to work and family. After the data center arrived, everything changed. I can’t bring myself to leave, even though I no longer see myself starting a family here. Over the past decade, I’ve built a support network, advanced my career, and remained close to relatives who depend on me. Every weekend, I watch my nephews, who go to the local elementary school just down the road. They notice the changes too, though they cannot comprehend their implications. Now, I feel stuck and unsure what to do.
Environmental justice exists because Black communities have always organized for clean air, safe water, healthy homes, and dignity. From fighting toxic dumping to defending land, housing, and public health, Black environmentalists have shaped the movement—often without recognition. We must thank Black leaders for addressing the interconnection between civil rights, labor safety, housing, and environmental health—their advocacy continues to shape how environmental law understands equity, participation, and accountability today.
Check out this blog for some fun resources, including a zine to print and share with your community!
Residents throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, are raising the alarm as new data centers, warehouses, and industrial facilities move in rapidly leading to public concerns surrounding noise, water, and power-usage. How is this happening so fast? Too often, municipalities approve these developments through quiet but completely legal rezoning processes. Many communities are left wondering: Can zoning rules really be changed that easily? Why don't we know about it? How can we get involved before final decisions are made? How does this work, and is there anything I can do about it?
Here's how the zoning process works, how municipalities change their zoning maps and codes, what the legal requirements are, and how you can better advocate to protect your community from these unwanted changes.
In H.B. 96, the Ohio General Assembly snuck anti-environment provisions into the bill at the last minute that removed important protections for Ohioans who want to file complaints against polluters while also invalidating community air monitoring data. These statutory changes have no relationship to Ohio’s budget and thus violate the Ohio Constitution’s requirement that all legislation include only one subject.
In response to the Planning Director’s comments in the media that the proposed development is a better land use than electroplating or some of the other things that could go on this property, it’s simply a legal falsehood that the City has to grant a conditional use permit and allow this proposed development to move forward.
On October 22, 2020, the East Pittsburgh Borough Zoning Hearing Board voted to affirm the Borough Council’s earlier decision to rescind approval for a natural gas well pad proposed on the U.S. Steel Edgar Thompson property, just outside the City of Pittsburgh.
Contact: Tim Fitchett, Attorney tfitchett@fairshake-els.org
On October 6, 2020, Clean Air Council (CAC), through counsel, filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue Sunoco Pipeline L.P. (SPLP) for violations of its Erosion and Sedimentation Control permits related to the Mariner East II pipelines.
Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services of Pittsburgh, PA, which is representing Clean Air Council in this matter, filed the notice outlining an alleged pattern and practice of preventing professional geologists (PGs) working on the pipeline from properly inspecting and investigating environmental conditions, including subsidence, near the pipeline. The Notice of Intent to Sue contends that:
● SPLP prevented the PGs from talking with drillers, depriving them of required information.
● SPLP prevented PGs from reporting potentially dangerous subsidence outside of an arbitrarily determined boundary.
● SPLP failed to adequately monitor subsidence incidents that were reported.
● SPLP required the PGs’ reports to be editable and altered those reports before submission to regulatory agencies.
● SPLP required the PGs to conform their findings with those of the Utility Inspectors, regardless of their actual findings.
Given the limitations placed on PGs and the potential alteration of their reports, CAC contends that SPLP has violated their Erosion and Sedimentation permits. Those permits require that SPLP submit true and accurate reports to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to ensure compliance with the Clean Streams Law.
“Sunoco is so scared of what its scientists will find in investigating its pipeline construction that it’s muzzled them and doctored their reports” said Joseph Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council. “Building pipelines based on fake science is dangerous and fraudulent.”
The Notice of Intent to Sue can be found here.
On September 2, 2020 WeConservePA, supported by attorney Ryan Hamilton and legal intern Emily Rollins of Fair Shake ELS, published a legal guide to Adverse Possession in Pennsylvania in order to help property owners understand the concepts behind this legal theory and provide practical advice for avoiding disputes.
On July 6, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States denied an application that would allow for the Keystone XL pipeline to continue construction pending an environmental review of their Nationwide Permit 12 (“NWP 12”). This means that construction for the pipeline is to be put on hold until it undergoes a strict and lengthy review process, which could last up until and into 2021. But there is a whole lot more to this story…
On June 4th, 2020 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the EPA’s approval of the use of three different types of dicamba, a herbicide developed by Monsanto. They did so stating that the EPA, “...substantially understated the risk that it acknowledged.” Dicamba is a herbicide developed by Monsanto, that was approved in late 2016 as a replacement for another dangerous herbicide “Round-Up”. Many common weeds had grown resistant to Round-Up along with many other common herbicides. While not as dangerous to people as Round-Up is, dicamba has still been making the farmers that use it sick. The true harm of dicamba that the Ninth Circuit focused on when it vacated the approval of it, however, was the harm it causes to the environment and nearby farms.
