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Susan Phillips

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.
Email: sphillips@whyy.org

Latest by Susan Phillips

An active drill site on state forest land in Tioga County, Oct. 2019. The Seneca Resources well will tap the Utica Shale formation.
October 1, 2024 | 9:43 AM

Fracking in Pennsylvania hasn’t gone as well as some may think

With all the talk of fracking in Pennsylvania during this presidential race, it’s worth looking at what is at stake for workers, leaseholders and residents who live near oil and gas operations.

One quick but important reality check — a president cannot ban fracking in Pennsylvania. Only an act of Congress can prohibit fracking on a national level on private and state land, which is where fracking occurs in Pennsylvania.

By Susan Phillips
Balsu Lakshmanan, CTO of Versogen, inside his research lab where researchers are testing an electrolyzer that could make hydrogen production more sustainable and affordable.
Updated: May 9, 2024 | 11:10 am

Green hydrogen: A climate change solution or fossil fuel bait and switch?

To help solve the climate crisis, $750 million could flow to the Philadelphia region to create a hydrogen economy. But some say it’s a deceit to help the fossil fuel industry.
By Susan Phillips
Maya van Rossum, with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, interrupts Gov. Josh Shapiro's speech promoting a regional hydrogen hub at the Steamfitters Local 420 union hall in Northeast Philadelphia March 11, 2024. (Susan Phillips/WHYY)
March 13, 2024 | 10:31 AM

Environmentalists clash with Gov. Shapiro at hydrogen energy meeting in Northeast Philly

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and other groups objected to the fact that the public meeting was being held at the steamfitters union hall.
By Susan Phillips
A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection employee wrote in an inspection report on Feb. 16 that they saw a muddy clay-like substance flowing out of a wetland at the site of a previous sinkhole in the area in and around Marsh Creek State Park. (DEP inspection report)
February 23, 2024 | 9:47 AM

Marsh Creek State Park once again the site of cleanup due to Mariner East pipeline construction

Mariner East pipeline builder Energy Transfer is back at the area near Marsh Creek State Park to clean up more drilling mud.

By Susan Phillips
In this photo from May 2018, Mariner East 2 pipeline construction crews work in the backyards of homes on Lisa Drive in West Whiteland Township, Chester County. The area has dealt with a number of sinkholes, including one on July 6, 2023. The problem led to Energy Transfer buying at least five homes along Lisa Drive after the aquifer there was damaged.
July 11, 2023 | 6:22 PM

New sinkhole forms along Mariner East pipeline in Chester County

The sinkhole occurred in the area of Lisa Drive, West Whiteland Township, where multiple sinkholes first appeared during construction of the pipeline in March 2018.

By Susan Phillips
The coal-fired Homer City Generating Station. Photo: Reid R. Frazier
June 16, 2023 | 4:48 PM

Pennsylvania’s largest coal plant, and one of its largest polluters, to shut down

The switch to natural gas from coal has some predicting a similar shift in the coming decades when new natural gas plants begin to age.

By Susan Phillips
The Cutaiar family drinks only bottled water at her home in Sellersville because her family's well was found to be contaminated with PFAS.
January 14, 2023 | 3:39 PM

Pennsylvania sets drinking water standards on two ‘forever chemical’ PFAS compounds

There are no federal maximum contaminant levels for PFAS. Pennsylvania joins others states that have set their own.

By Susan Phillips
After lawsuits from 16 stations, including Pennsylvania, the Postal Service has committed to all electric delivery vehicles beginning in 2026.
December 21, 2022 | 4:31 PM

Postal Service commits to 100 percent electric vehicle replacement beginning in 2026

The Biden Administration provided $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to help make the purchase, which is expected to cost $9.6 billion in total.

By Susan Phillips
Climate activists from the activist group EQAT staged a protest at Vanguard headquarters in Malvern, Montgomery County. (9/21/22) courtesy of EQAT.
December 9, 2022 | 4:55 PM

Vanguard pulls out of international climate initiative, angering environmentalists

The Sunrise Project is part of the global Vanguard S.O.S. campaign aimed at pressuring the company to disinvest in fossil fuels.

By Susan Phillips
Ray Kemble talks about his water issues in his home in Dimock, Pa., Feb. 14, 2022. Faulty gas wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas were blamed for leaking methane into the groundwater in Dimock, in one of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom.
Updated: December 13, 2022 | 4:36 pm

‘Gasland’ driller will pay millions for new water system in Dimock

The no-contest plea to multiple criminal charges marks the first time Cabot Oil and Gas has taken responsibility for destroying drinking water supplies. 

By Susan Phillips
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