NY Brewer On Tap to Oppose Gas 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.

August 23, 2011 | 5:13 PM

A craft brewery in upstate New York worries fracking could taint their well water, and destroy their selection of Belgium beers. Brewery Ommegan, the maker of Aphrodite Ale, Hennepin Farmhouse Saison and Three Philosophers, sits on top of the Marcellus Shale in Cooperstown, NY. Bloomberg reports that Ommegan has become an influential voice in the campaign to ban fracking in New York state.
New York just recently announced plans to lift a temporary moratorium on gas drilling. In response, several towns have voted to ban the controversial method of extracting natural gas, known as hydraulic fracturing. It’s unclear whether those bans will hold up in court. Ommegan is helping to fund these efforts in Otsego County, NY.