🗞 August 2022 – Network Newsletter

You can skim through this newsletter to see what’s happening in the anti-fracking movement and check out some great events and updates from our partners.

To see updates as they happen, stay tuned to network.halttheharm.net.

Did you miss our August Network Call? In August we had our best monthly call yet, with leaders from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to Texas, Colorado, and California sharing updates on what’s happening in the movement to halt the harms of the oil & gas industry. We’re sharing many of those updates in this Newsletter. Check them out below.

​Make sure to sign up for the September 1 call here.

Enjoy!

In this email

• Network Alerts
• Upcoming Events
• New Media
• Recommended Resources
• Tip of the Month, Members Directory & Direct Messaging

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🚨 Network Alerts

The following alerts were posted in the 📌 Network Bulletin Board​

Tracking Polling and Communications Insights, Marty Kearns

We’ve created a conversation thread on the Halt the Harm Network to share headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls. We’ll regularly update the thread with the latest research, and we encourage folks to share in the thread’s comments polling and opinion research that you know will be of interest to others working on communications around fighting fracking and oil and gas development. → Follow the conversation here​

New Reports Show Fracking Is Failing Rural PA; Investments in Quality of Life Could Shift Course, Ben Hunkler

The Ohio River Valley Institute released two new reports showing that Pennsylvania’s rural fracking counties have lost jobs every year since 2012 and that policies that focus on increasing quality of life—things like safeguarding clean air and water or funding energy efficiency retrofits to make homes and buildings more comfortable—are more likely than policies focusing on industry or the quality of the business environment to generate employment and population growth in Appalachia. → Find out more here​

Paid Field Canvasser Job Opportunity, Center for Coalfield Justice

The Center for Coalfield Justice is launching their first ever paid canvassing team ahead of this year’s election season. They are looking for 4 field canvassers to spread the word and reach out to voters across Washington and Greene Counties about voting access and effects of corporate money on elections. → Find out more here​

Environmental Health Project updates resources on the health impacts of shale gas, Debbie Larson

EHP has updated their toolkit covering the more than two dozen peer-reviewed epidemiological studies, and hundreds of other investigations and firsthand accounts, that show that shale gas development correlates with poor health outcomes in people living in proximity to such infrastructure. → See the toolkit here​

EHP also created a page featuring easy-to-understand summaries of recent and relevant studies on health issues related to shale gas development. → Read more here​

Petition to stop world’s largest bitcoin mine from being built in rural Texas county, Jackie Sawicky

Concerned Citizens of Navarro County, TX have created a petition to push back against Riot Blockchain’s attempt to build the largest cryptocurrency mine in the world in a rural Texas county → Learn more here​

Climate Emergency Film Club: Permafrost – Presentation by Lisa Winter, PSR Pennsylvania

During last month’s Climate Emergency Film Club on Permafrost, Lisa Winter, Environmental Scientist with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, was unable to join us for the panel discussion but she’s sent this video to share with you. Her perspective helps put the human side to climate change and thawing permafrost from those who experience the consequences every day. → Watch the video​

FracTracker Adds Two New Staff Members

Our friends at FracTracker have added two staff members: Program Manager Erika Ninos and Communications Specialist Sarah Carballo. Make sure to say hi to them on the network! Welcome!

Notes from our August Monthly Network Calls, Ryan Clover & Kevin Richardson

Our August call was full of energy as leaders shared exciting updates from around the country about their projects and campaigns in the fight to stop oil & gas pollution. Here are the call notes and recording (we only record the announcement go-around).

Our monthly calls are on the first Thursday of every month. The next call is September 1st. RSVP here​

→ See all alerts in the 📌 Network Bulletin Board​

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📆 Upcoming

You don’t need to wait until the monthly newsletter to get upcoming events. To subscribe to the weekly event update, click here. You can also add your event to the calendar by joining the event planners discussion in the network.

August 24th, Oil & Gas Pipeline Right-of-Ways: Forest Fragmentation and the Spread of Lyme Disease, Erika Jackson

​In this webinar, FracTracker’s environmental health fellow will discuss her research on the relationship between oil & gas pipeline right-of-ways and Lyme disease. This research is intended to serve as a gateway to further research on the impacts that forest fragmentation caused by oil and gas infrastructure has had on the spread of Lyme disease. → Click here to register​

September 1st, HHN Monthly Call

Join people from across Halt the Harm Network in Zoom call for a go-around with campaign updates and news. It’s a chance to share, learn about different campaigns, and meet other people affected by the harms of fracking and oil & gas. → RSVP here​

September 15th, Climate Emergency Film Club – Atmosphere, Tonyehn Verkitus

The third session in Physicians for Social Responsibility’s film club based on the five-part documentary Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops will take a look at the feedback loops associated with the atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere absorbs more water vapor, which in turn traps more heat and warms the planet further in an accelerating feedback loop. Climate change is also disrupting the jet stream, triggering a feedback loop that brings warm air northward, and causes weather patterns to stall in place for longer. Make sure to watch the film before attending! → Register here​

See all events in the 🗓 Network Events Calendar​

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📹 New Media

Here are links to recorded media posted in the network Recordings space since June 2022

• ​Breaking Down West Virginia v. EPA – Ohio River Valley Institute, Ben Hunkler
• ​Climate Emergency Film Club Session 2 – Permafrost, Tonyehn Verkitus
• ​PFAS, Pregnancy, and Public Health: Experts Weigh In, Debbie Larson

→ See all events in the 📹 Network Recordings Space​

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🧰 Recommended Resources

We’re always discovering new resources in meetings, events, or from things people share in the network. Here is a compilation of some of the new things we’ve come across over the last month. If you want to share a resource, please post in the conversations space.

• Statement on Blue Hydrogen, Environmental Health Project → Read more​
• The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S., Propublica → Read more​
• New Explainer: West Virginia v EPA, Congressional Progressive Caucus → Read more​
• Analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act, The Repeat Project → Read more​
• California Regulators Approve More Oil Well Permits Amid a Crisis of Leaking Oil Wells that Should be Plugged, FrackTracker → Read more​
• Direct Support Fund, Mountain Watershed Association (MWA), Applications are accepted each month → Read More​

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📌 Tip of the Month – Member Directory and Direct Messaging

Here is a new tip for getting the most from the network, by Ryan Clover.

​Use our members directory to search for leaders and send them a direct message to connect with them.

The network has members from across the country. You can easily search our members directory to find leaders and use our direct message feature to connect with them over oil & gas issues.

Using the members directory is a great way to get the most out of the Halt the Harm Network by finding other leaders to collaborate with or share information and resources with. Check it out → Network members​

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💭 Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading our August newsletter. At Halt the Harm, we’ve been using the summer months to develop new projects and ways to facilitate collaboration on the network. We’re excited to bring those things to fruition in the fall. Stay tuned for that.

As always, the newsletter is a group project by members in the network who want to help the exchange of information and connections among leaders fighting the oil & gas industry.

Each month we start this newsletter with a shared document and then use the monthly network call to gather some of the updates included. We invite you to join that effort and share your updates in Halt the Harm Network to be included in the next edition of this monthly newsletter!

Sincerely,
Halt the Harm Network
Raina, Ryan, Kevin, Jamala, Marty, Krishna