Energy. Environment. Economy.

A reporting project of  NPR member stations

Scott Blanchard

Scott Blanchard is editor of StateImpact Pennsylvania, an award-winning public media collaboration among WITF, WHYY in Philadelphia and The Allegheny Front in Pittsburgh that covers the state’s energy economy.

Before joining StateImpact in 2017, Blanchard was enterprise editor at the York (Pa.) Daily Record, where he led the newsroom’s investigative and projects reporting. He was a 2013 Ochberg Fellow, receiving training at Columbia University in PTSD science, self-help and peer support. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Society of News Editors. A Rockville, Md., native, he is a graduate of the University of Missouri’s journalism school.
Email: scott_blanchard@witf.org

Latest by Scott Blanchard

The Bruce Mansfield Power Plant burns coal to generate electricity in Beaver County.
Updated: November 19, 2019 | 6:52 pm

Lawmakers, criticizing Wolf’s executive order on joining cap-and-trade program, say it’s their call to make

Proposed bill would require Legislature to OK Pennsylvania becoming part of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
By Scott Blanchard
The Andover estate in Thornbury Township, Delaware County, along the route of the Mariner East 2 pipeline which began operating on Dec. 29. A valve site for the pipeline is in the center of the picture.
Updated: November 14, 2019 | 10:11 am

Timeline: Mariner East 2 pipeline project’s permit problems and investigations

By Scott Blanchard
The Svínafellsjökull glacier in Iceland. Glacial retreat is among the most visible impacts of climate change. Since the early 20th century, with few exceptions, glaciers around the world have been retreating at unprecedented rates.
September 16, 2019 | 10:34 AM

Pennsylvania has a key role in talk of a carbon-neutral economy. We’ll take a closer look at the stakes

StateImpact Pennsylvania is part of “Covering Climate Now,” an effort led by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine to focus news organizations’ efforts on coverage of the issue.

By Scott Blanchard
Power lines
August 27, 2019 | 4:56 PM

Pa. Supreme Court ruling: Lancaster can’t act as a utility regulator; that’s the PUC’s job

By Scott Blanchard
Jessica Cutaiar never liked the taste of the well water at her Sellersville home. Now she knows it is contaminated with PFAS, a chemical used in fire retardant foam.
July 18, 2019 | 8:30 AM

WHYY’s ‘The Why’: Pa.’s widening PFAS water-contamination crisis

By Scott Blanchard
Map of Pennsylvania. Original image used under a creative commons license (https://bit.ly/1mhaR6e).
July 18, 2019 | 6:00 AM

Ask StateImpact Pennsylvania: Vote for which reader question we should answer

Climate change, industry regulation and solar power are among the topics readers have been wondering about.

By Scott Blanchard
StateImpact Pennsylvania reporter Amy Sisk, left, with panelists Paulina Jaramillo, Greg Reed and Ivonne Peña at a public event in Pittsburgh Tuesday Jan. 29 called
April 16, 2019 | 6:52 AM

‘energy, explained’ podcast: Climate change’s big question: Can we get to zero carbon?

At a Jan. 29 public event, three experts peered into the future — near-term and long-term

By Scott Blanchard
FILE PHOTO: Newsmen and spectators stand in front of the main gate of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Middletown, Penn., April 2, 1979.
March 29, 2019 | 6:00 AM

‘I remember TMI’: An oral history of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident as told by people who lived nearby

Seven residents tell their stories of uncertainty, confusion, fear and the decision they faced: Stay home amid risk of radiation, or flee.

By Scott Blanchard
StateImpact
Updated: April 24, 2019 | 5:45 pm

Crews investigate possible gasoline leak from Sunoco pipeline near Reading

By Scott Blanchard
In this photo, from 2015 Joe Main, third from left, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and Patricia Silvey, center, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations with MSHA, speak with workers at the Gibson North mine, in Princeton, Ind. Federal mining regulators in December 2017 indicated they were reconsidering rules meant to protect underground miners from breathing coal and rock dust - the cause of black lung - and diesel exhaust, which can cause cancer.
February 12, 2019 | 5:16 AM

‘energy, explained’ podcast: The black lung disease epidemic that ‘shouldn’t have happened’

NPR reporter Howard Berkes joins StateImpact’s Reid Frazier to discuss regulatory failures — and the human cost, including to Pennsylvania miners — of a disease that has been described as ‘suffocating while alive.’

By Scott Blanchard
LOAD MORE