Farewell, StateImpact Pennsylvania

Rachel McDevitt

Recent Stories

I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.

My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.

I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.

I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

A screenshot of StateImpact's well-tracking app.

April 30, 2025 | 1:51 PM

It’s been a good run.

StateImpact Pennsylvania is ending after 13+ years. It lasted so long thanks to the support of those who valued, read and shared our work.

This site will remain as an archive and resource, but it will no longer be updated. Stories on energy, the environment, and climate change will be available on WITF’s website.

StateImpact launched in July 2011 as part of a collaboration between NPR and member stations in 8 states to examine how state issues and policy affect people’s lives.

In Pennsylvania, the big topic was energy–specifically natural gas and the fracking boom.

In an opening message to readers, reporter Scott Detrow wrote that StateImpact would “be your go-to site for news about the intersection between Pennsylvania’s state government and its booming energy economy. We’ll take a look at how Marcellus Shale drilling is changing Pennsylvania’s economic landscape, and also cover the impact hydraulic fracturing and heavy equipment are making on communities and the environment.”

Detrow at WITF and Susan Phillips at WHYY started that nationally recognized coverage, which evolved to cover fights over new pipelines built to carry the glut of natural gas out of state, negative health effects in drilling communities, how climate change is affecting Pennsylvania and how the state is responding (or not) to a warming world.

StateImpact was able to cover energy and environmental issues in a way that other news outlets didn’t.

Katie Colaneri said that for years after she wrote a story explaining the connection between local zoning and drilling, people contacted her to say how helpful the data was.

“I always think about how this story seemed so wonky at the time, and yet I heard about it from so many people who wanted this information to understand the implications of the Act 13 decision,” Colaneri said.

“The journalism I am most proud of is the journalism I was able to do as a StateImpact reporter,” said Detrow, now a host of NPR’s All Things Considered. “The project gave us the rarest of things in the current news environment: The ability to focus in on one topic, day after day, and just try to help listeners and readers understand it.”

Plus, Detrow said, it was a fun beat.

“I got to stand in the middle of rattlesnake nests, inspect decomposing butter sculptures, and endlessly loop the northern tier of the state tracking down drilling sites,” he said.

Marie Cusick, who came to WITF after Detrow’s departure, said she feels privileged to have worked on the project.

“In particular, I liked covering the history of the state’s environmental rights amendment (something I’d never learned in school) and becoming an FAA-licensed drone pilot, and flying it to show the expansion of the state’s pipeline infrastructure (sorry again to WITF for crashing that first drone we had – oops!),” Cusick said. “Thank you to everyone who took the time to talk with me, read, watch, or listen to the stories I made.”

Here are some highlights worth revisiting:

StateImpact Pennsylvania Wins duPont-Columbia Award

Boom Town, on Towanda’s fortunes in the initial fracking boom

After the Boom, on the eventual bust when the drilling rigs left Towanda (This project was honored with a Sigma Delta Chi award from The Society of Professional Journalists.)

Former state health employees say they were silenced on drilling

Pennsylvania’s Blurred Lines, a look at how top government officials move between the public and private sectors

Gas Rush, on the build-out of pipeline infrastructure

Mariner East 2: At what risk?

The story of environmental rights in Pennsylvania

Court document reveals Range Resources, other defendants agreed to $3 million settlement in Washington County contamination suit (StateImpact and other media organizations went to court to be able to publish this story.)

StateImpact Pennsylvania’s TMI oral history receives documentary award

Pa. grand jury report on fracking: DEP failed to protect public health

Climate Solutions, a collaboration among StateImpact, three other news organizations, two colleges and a theater company, held a deliberative forum to gauge the public on climate action and produced an original play, as well as served as a platform for solutions-based reporting. Some of that reporting was recognized with an honorable mention for beat reporting by the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Driving an EV in Pennsylvania

Can Pennsylvania learn from Washington state’s coal transition?