Thirty years ago in Canonsburg, PA, a town near Pittsburgh was slowly dwindling away. Coal mines were dying, and the glass, steel and manufacturing industries were struggling to stay afloat. Jason Capps, a Canonsburg resident his entire life decided to leave after graduating high school due to the limited opportunities left in the town. In 1987, the year Capps graduated from high school the unemployment rate was a startling 12 percent. In 2006, Capps moved back to his hometown following the rebirth of Western Pennsylvania with the discovery of the Marcellus Shale. “There was this amazing trickle effect, this positive…

President-elect Joe Biden has put climate change at the top of his funding agenda once he assumes office on Wednesday. His almost $2 trillion climate proposal will seek to reverse many of President Trump’s actions related to climate that have helped our domestic energy sector flourish. The proposal, if successful, is said to create 10 million clean energy jobs. Business Insider reports: The climate was also high up on the agenda during the confirmation hearing of Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen on Tuesday. Yellen told lawmakers that Biden’s infrastructure plan will involve investing in clean technology, renewable energy, promoting electric…

Race: Pennsylvania’s 14th Congressional District Key Cities: Washington and Greensburg Matchup: Republican/Incumbent Guy Reschenthaler vs. Democrat Bill Marx The Race: Pennsylvania’s 14th district is located in the southwestern part of the state, spanning Washington, Greene and Fayatte Counties, as well as parts of Westmoreland County. The incumbent is Republican Representative Guy Reschenthaler, who was first elected in 2018 and is running against Democratic challenger Bill Marx. Rep. Reschenthaler is a member of the House Energy Action Team, putting him on the front lines fighting against radical proposals that would destroy the coal, oil, and natural gas industries and the southwestern…

Race: Pennsylvania’s 16th Congressional District Key Cities: New Castle and Erie Matchup: Republican/Incumbent Mike Kelly vs. Democrat Kristy Gnibus The Race: Pennsylvania’s 16th district is located in the northwestern portion of the state and includes portions of Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, and Mercer counties. The incumbent is Representative Mike Kelly (R), who was first elected in 2010 and is running against Kristy Gnibus (D). Rep. Kelly voted no to both H.R. 205 which extends the ban of offshore drilling in the U.S. and H.R. 1146 which banned the exploration of oil fields in Alaska. Rep. Kelly has continued to defend…

Race: Pennsylvania 17th Congressional District Key Cities: Beaver Falls and Wexford Matchup: Democrat/Incumbent Conor Lamb vs. Republican Sean Parnell The Race: With the 2018 congressional redistricting in Pennsylvania, Rep. Lamb went from representing Pennsylvania’s 18th district to representing the 17th district. While Rep. Lamb claims he wants to protect the jobs of middle-class energy workers, specifically the fracking industry, his actions tell another story. Rep. Lamb was one of nine members on Joe Biden’s task force that created his “clean energy plan.” And, as we know, Joe Biden has not given the people of Pennsylvania reason to trust him when it…

In a recent opinion piece in Penn Live Patriot-News by John Yudichak, an Independent Pennsylvania State Senator, he stresses the negative impacts dismantling America’s prosperous natural gas industry would have on his state and the country as a whole. It would be bad politics and bad energy policy to capitulate to the demands of extreme environmental interest groups who want to shut down the natural gas industry and tell Pennsylvania building trade union members their jobs do not matter. These same extreme environmental interest groups are pushing Biden to adopt energy policies that require complete elimination of natural gas as…