In 2023, the network grew even stronger as leaders found new ways to collaborate on campaigns and share resources to protect our communities from oil & gas.

Here are just 7 of the many highlights from the past year – but before we dive in, we want to thank you for being part of this network and reading.

You can support the strength and growth of the network by sharing feedback in our annual survey ​here​.

Here are 7 highlights from our network, including links to different resources or projects you can explore.

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💬 Countering Misinformation

We’ll start with the most recent one.

Over 270 people registered for an interactive workshop in a new series on countering industry talking points. “Say This, Not That” events are already being planned for next year.

In this replay, David Gold and Leah David Gold from the Environmental Polling Consortium discussed how to message effectively on Methane/Fracked Gas. aka “Natural Gas.”

​→ Watch the Replay and view notes here​

🎉 Celebrating Environmental Leaders

Did you catch the 2023 Community Sentinel Awards? Halt the Harm and FracTracker Alliance co-hosted the hybrid, online and in-person environmental justice award ceremony in November.

Together we honored the leadership of the five remarkable Sentinel award winners who are fighting to protect communities from the harms of the fossil fuel industry.

We heard about the winners’ stories, listened to their powerful acceptance speeches, and listened to a wonderful keynote from Eliza Evans of the activist art project All the Way to Hell.

Learn more about the winners ​here​.

📹 Webinars Recordings from 2023

Leaders in the network shared 107 unique events in 2023 on the network event calendar, and 35 new presentation recordings were added to the network recordings space.

People logged in from different parts of the United States to learn about different issues and get involved in different campaigns.

• Busting the myths behind so-called “chemical recycling.”
• Campaigns to end new fracking in Colorado
• Forever chemicals in fracking operations
• The Fracking Science Compendium 9.0 Release
• The Halliburton Loophole and unregulated chemicals
• Local efforts to stop fracking’ reckless wasting of water resources.
• And so much more.

→ ​Explore the Recordings Library​ to see almost a hundred different recordings from network leaders collected over the years.

🎥 Powerful Documentaries

Halt the Harm was proud to host screenings and live discussions for two powerful documentaries that told the stories of communities working to protect their health and environment from the fossil fuel industry.

Hellbent tells the story of one town’s epic fight to prevent a fracking waste injection well from being built in their community.

Fracking the System: Colorado’s Oil & Gas Wars tells the story of one Colorado community’s tumultuous ten-year journey to protect themselves from the impacts of fracking and the hard-fought campaign by activists to push back against fracking through a 2018 statewide ballot initiative.

​→ Watch the film, Hellbent​

​→ Learn more, Fracking the System​

🎤 Leaders Tell Their Stories

Leader interviews: Each month Halt the Harm held space to connect with inspiring leaders and dive deeper into their work. We interviewed them about their personal stories and their campaigns, and Halt the Harm members had the opportunity to connect with them and learn from each other.

It’s been moving to see how these short sessions help create bridges across our movement and open up new opportunities for collaboration.

​→ Check out the interviews​

Speaking of creating new spaces for collaboration…

❤️ Building a Networked Movement

This summer we brought on 3 Networking Fellows for 2023 to strengthen our network and create new opportunities for leaders in the network to connect.

• Tina Katsanos (The Climate Reality Project’s Charlotte chapter)
• Jo Banner (The Descendants Project)
• Michael McKenzie (Taproot Earth and People over Plastic) j

The Fellows’ work culminated in a dialogue event in August where network leaders from around the country discussed their campaigns and how a network approach can help them be successful.

In 2024 we’ll build on the success of this Welcome Committee to bring in new voices to grow our community and offer new perspectives that will help strengthen our ability to support campaigns.

📝 Supporting Leaders Fighting for Federal Methane Protections

Halt the Harm supported grassroots leaders in driving 6,000 comments to the Federal Methane Rule’s supplemental comment period.

The new safeguards, which have gone into effect at the federal level and will be implemented at the state level over the next two years, are an important step towards addressing the climate crisis, safeguarding public health, and creating new jobs.

They improve monitoring requirements for equipment known to malfunction and leak dangerous methane gas and for smaller oil & gas wells, which are responsible for half of all site-level methane emissions nationwide.

The comments that HHN members and leaders collected asked the EPA for better community involvement, stronger limits on flaring, and better standards to address emissions from storage and production tanks.

We’ll continue to support grassroots efforts in 2024 to ensure the rules are effectively implemented at the state level.

Looking ahead to 2024

Over the next few weeks we’ll be collecting feedback about the network and ways to improve the work of building a more connected movement.

To support this effort, please complete our network survey.

Then, you’re invited to join us on January 11th for an online networking session to reflect on some key questions as we begin 2024.

I hope you’ll join us!

If you haven’t yet, please complete the network survey (it’ll take about 10-15 minutes and really support this work.

​→ Complete the Halt the Harm Network Survey​

And until next time, happy holidays and happy new year!