06 - Gillian Graber - Protect Our Children From Fracking

10/07/16 • 41 min

Gillian moved into a residential suburban neighborhood to raise her children and live a peaceful life – but then she received a letter from an environmental monitoring group warning her about a proposal to frack for shale-gas in her neighborhood. If allowed, it would immediately endanger her family and community – so Gillian took action.
In just a few years Gillian became a full time organizer dedicated to protecting her community from the harms of fracking. She talked with neighbors, reached out to organizations who could support her work, and started gaining traction.
If you are living in an area affected by fracking and want to learn more about effective community organizing, then you're going to love hearing Gillian's story and checking out the resources she shared with us below.
I hope you enjoy this episode of the Halt the Harm Podcast with Gillian Graber.

As Mentioned in the Show:

Bio:

Gillian Graber is a cofounder and now the president of Protect PT, a community organization working to ensure the safety, security, and quality of life for people in Penn Township, Trafford, and surrounding communities. For the past two years they've been organizing to prevent fracking from putting their community at risk.
She's also working with Protect Our Children, a statewide coalition working to stop drilling near public schools.

What We Talked About:

In this interview Gillian shares how she got involved with community organizing. She explains what specific steps she took to grow her organization to what it is today.
This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a powerful resource for anyone confronting the fracking industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net

As Mentioned in the Show:

Bio:

What We Talked About:

Previous Episode

05 - Lisa Graves-Marcucci, How to Challenge Industrial Permits

If you are concerned with fracking infrastructure you're going to find this interview with Lisa Graves-Marcucci incredibly valuable.
Lisa shares two decades of experience challenging industrial activity such as coal, oil, and gas projects. She helps us understand what questions to ask, where to intervene, and how to identify the tactics used by industry to discourage us from getting involved.
I hope you enjoy this episode of the Halt the Harm Podcast with Lisa Graves-Marcucci.

As Mentioned in the Show:

Bio:

Lisa has been a community advocate for over 20 years. Since joining EIP in 2009, her efforts to protect human health from power plant and oil and gas pollution have grown from the community to the regional and national level. Lisa has conducted extensive reviews of permit files for EIP, helped to identify violations, and organized citizen testimony at numerous public hearings before local, state and national agencies. Lisa was invited to speak before the National Academy of Sciences in October of 2004 in Washington, D.C., advocating for more effective regulation of coal combustion waste disposal. Ms. Graves-Marcucci is a life-long resident of Pittsburgh’s Monongahela Valley and is a graduate of Duquesne University.

Main Message:

Industry tries to discourage participation in the local permitting process new industrial activity. But getting involved is critical, and there is a tangible set of tools you can use to challenge industry and start getting results.

What We Talked About:

In this interview Lisa shares how she began a two-decade career scrutinizing industrial projects and learning how to stand up to industry. She brings strength and determination to her work – and in this interview she shares some of the common forms of intimidation that industry representatives and "experts" use to discourage public participation during the permitting process.
In her experience Lisa has seen patterns emerge, and educates people how to stand up to industry and challenge these permits.
Why? Because in her two decades of experience she's never found a permit for an industrial project that didn't have problems or mistakes. She is currently in the process of creating a Citizen's Toolkit, which will be available through the Environmental Integrity Project and help everyday folks like you and me participate in decisions that impact us.
This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a powerful resource for anyone confronting the fracking industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net
Halt the Harm Podcast is produced in collaboration with Eco-Defense Radio, which you can learn more about at ecodefenseradio.org

Next Episode

07 - Sara Rasmussen and Heather Harr – Fracking and Public Health

On this episode we've got two guests, Heather Harr and Sara Rasmussen – we're talking about the impacts of fracking on public health.
Heather Harr is the project director for the League of Women Voters in Pennsylvania's Straight Scoop on Shale Drilling. She talks about the upcoming Shale and Public Health Conference, and also shares some valuable resources about public health impacts of fracking. The conference is for health professionals and community members interested in how the fracking industry impacts public health.
Sara Rasmussen MHS, who you'll hear in the second half of this episode, published new research that shows a clear connection between fracking and asthma.
She is a PhD candidate in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. She has been involved in three studies on unconventional natural gas development and health outcomes. In this interview Sara explains how they collected data to show the impacts of fracking on public health.
I also learned a new word – epidemiology, which is (noun) "the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health". This is why I'm asking the questions here ;-)

As Mentioned in This Episode:

This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a powerful resource for anyone confronting the fracking industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net