PA Enviro Groups Issue Report Cards to State Legislators

Jessica Pupovac/NPR

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I’m a Chicago-based investigative reporter, radio and digital producer, fact-checker and advocate for government transparency. I specialize in covering the environment, public health, and criminal justice issues.

I aim to tell stories that increase understanding, hold the powerful to account, and examine the human impacts of policy choices, particularly on vulnerable populations.

I am currently a Social Justice News Nexus fellow at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, and am working on a series of digital projects with WTTW, Chicago’s PBS station.

My work has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and in The Chicago Reader, In These Times, and NPR.org.

I previously worked as a radio and digital producer for NPR’s Morning Edition, where I collaborated frequently on cross-platform, deep-dive series with the investigations team.

I earned a Master’s degree in investigative reporting from the University of Missouri in 2012.

I feel fortunate to work in a profession where I am constantly able to learn, meet new people, challenge my assumptions and, hopefully, contribute to public understanding.

March 20, 2012 | 7:12 PM

PennEnvironment

Click on the image above to open an interactive scorecard, released today by a coalition of Pennsylvania environmental advocacy groups.

Pennsylvania’s sweeping new regulations for Marcellus Shale drilling passed with help from both sides of the aisle, environmental groups said today as they unveiled a new tool they hope will inform voters in advance of the November elections.
The “Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Scorecard” gives a run-down of where each state legislator fell on key provisions of House Bill 1950, or Act 13. The tool was a collaborative effort of four environmental advocacy organizations:PennEnvironment, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania and local chapters of the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action. It tracks legislators’ votes on several measures in the omnibus legislation and calculates the percentage of those votes the groups deem to be “pro-environment.” While Dems’ scores fall anywhere between zero and 100 percent (or what the environmentalists consider an A+), the highest score for any Republican is a paltry 54 percent.
Although supporters of the new act say that it will improve several statewide environmental provisions, including increasing setbacks from buildings and waterways, during today’s teleconference, the groups called these and other environmental protections “minimal.”
They also lambasted a provision that they said leaves local communities “hamstrung” by preempting local zoning ordinances and relegating authority over the placement of wells, pipelines and other drilling infrastructure to the state.
Industry leaders have applauded the uniform regulations for allowing them to develop natural gas with “certainty.”
Still, controversy over preemption might not be over. Several local politicians have echoed the groups concerns and are exploring legal action in response.
Gov. Tom Corbett signed Act 13 into law Feb. 8. It will take effect on April 16.