Truth Lives in Raw Data
“Rather than finger-pointing, let’s let the data – clear, precise, and science-backed – drive the conversation. By focusing on facts, we can create an open dialogue grounded in reality, so that together we can ensure a cleaner, healthier, and more informed future for Pennsylvania.”
September 17, 2024
By Positive Energy Hub Staff
Too often "click-bait" headlines and sensationalized narratives drive public conversation. Few American industries are subject to this rhetoric more than the domestic natural gas sector, where deep-pocketed environmental activist organizations and the media outlets they fund advance a radical “keep it in the ground” agenda.
Southwestern Pennsylvania has become ground zero for this debate, and a state-funded study aiming to provide clarity left us with far more questions than answers. Significant flaws, including no actual air, water, or land samples collected, in last year’s University of Pittsburgh health and environment studies drove more confusion and less trust in the process for local residents – residents who rightfully deserve to get the answers they need.
As one of the study’s hand-selected participants lamented to WPXI, “I had a one-time phone interview. They didn’t come to my home, they didn’t test the soil, they didn’t test the water, they didn’t come to the community.”
A company rooted in this community for generations and born from a drive for continuous improvement, we saw this data gap as an opportunity to be responsive to stakeholders and provide public access to comprehensive air, water, and waste data of the various phases of unconventional natural gas development.
Enter CNX’s Radical Transparency™ program, further heightening the company’s operational disclosures in collaboration with state environmental regulators and the public, prioritizing public health and safety and ensuring the natural gas industry is performing its work in line with the highest standards.
In partnership with Governor Shapiro and the state Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), we have installed robust, third-party data collection systems on more than a dozen active well pads and compressor stations in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia. This information – the most comprehensive in the nation – is fed directly to the PADEP and to a public platform, eliminating the risk of data manipulation.
“With this collaboration, CNX is leading the industry in showing how we can reduce pollution and ensure the health and safety of our communities while still maintaining Pennsylvania’s central role in the nation’s energy economy.” – Governor Josh Shapiro
So, what are the results when you do take accurate, site-level measurements and open-source them for the public to view? That’s the question we dared to ask over a year ago, and the initial answers (found in raw, unfiltered data via Radical Transparency™) paint a much more holistic picture that mere statistical associations simply cannot.
Instead of validating the catastrophic narrative pushed by some environmental activists like FracTracker Alliance, PennFuture, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Environmental Health Project, Breathe Project, and reported by the likes of Capital & Main and Inside Climate News (organizations that share funding from deep-pocketed foundations that hide behind these storefront organizations), the data tells a different story – one that doesn’t quite fit into the pre-formed box activists hoped for:
Now, as the facts refuse to align with the “fracking is terrible” rhetoric, the industry’s regular critics are working overtime to discredit the very data they once demanded. In the face of full transparency, they’re throwing everything they can to undermine the credibility of a system they once clamored for.
That includes misappropriating nearly two-decades worth of “environmental violation” notices from PADEP – 90% of which were self-reported paperwork errors rather than actual environmental hazards – in attempts to cast CNX as an irresponsible operator that can’t be trusted. This narrative was spun right when Radical Transparency™ was first announced and, just like we did then, we’ll continue to hold these organizations accountable and call them out when they intentionally confuse the facts.
We understand there will always be entities fundamentally opposed to natural gas development and refuse to believe it can be done responsibly. Despite these differences, we invite all skeptics (and non-skeptics) to come see firsthand how Radical Transparency™ functions in action. Rather than finger-pointing, let’s let the data – clear, precise, and science-backed – drive the conversation. By focusing on facts, we can create an open dialogue grounded in reality, so that together we can ensure a cleaner, healthier, and more informed future for Pennsylvania.
Consider this an open invitation to view and assess the Radical Transparency™ program firsthand, meet with our team, share legitimate concerns you may have – no one who comes to the table in good faith will be turned away. Let’s work together to provide Pennsylvania communities the answers they deserve.
For more information or to engage directly with our Radical Transparency™ team, please contact us at radicaltransparency@cnx.com.
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