Fractivists to Rally in D.C. Against Drilling

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

May 2, 2012 | 3:04 PM

Susan Phillips / StateImpactPA

Three-year-old Skylar Sowatsky protests drilling at a rally in Butler County.

Activists opposed to natural gas drilling and fracking are planning a large rally in Washington, D.C. at the end of July. A coalition of environmental groups announced their plans today, which they say will draw protestors from 13 different states where fracking occurs, or will occur in the near future.

“[It’s] a call to action to demand an end to putting oil and gas drilling profits ahead of public health, clean water and air and the safety of our communities.”

More than 50 environmental groups have formed an umbrella organization called “Stop the Frack Attack.” Aside from the Sierra Club, the list of participating organizations are local, some having formed specifically to address fracking concerns in their communities. The growing anti-drilling movement has held rallies before, but they have been targeted regionally. Fractivists did gather last summer to protest at an industry convention in Philadelphia. But this is the first rally in the nation’s capitol that targets the drilling industry.