Podcast appearances and mentions of reid frazier

The Pennsylvania House is broadening and advancing a consumer data privacy bill. WITF’s Jordan Wilkie reports it would allow Pennsylvanians to ask companies to not collect certain data and have them delete other data already on-hand. A Johnstown-based mining company has gotten the go-ahead to expand an underground coal mine in Westmoreland County. LCT Energy operates the 2800-acre Rustic Ridge “Number One” coal mine in Donegal, just south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike exit there. The company recently got approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to expand the mine northward, underneath the Turnpike. Reid Frazier, from our friends at the Allegheny Front, reports opponents of the project worry about the potential for environmental damage. Dauphin County officials admit a 911 dispatcher did not appropriately escalate a call in accordance with county policy, early Sunday morning, April 13th, an hour after an arson attack on the Governor's Residence. Campgrounds, boat ramps, welcome centers and other recreational facilities run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in six states are being closed or seeing hours reduced due to funding cuts by the Trump administration. The cuts include Blue Marsh Lake located near Reading, in Berks County. Mike Sullivan’s nearly decade-long tenure running the Pittsburgh Penguins is over. The team announced Monday that it was parting ways with the two-time Stanley Cup winning coach just over a week after the Penguins missed out on the playoffs for a third straight season. And the Hershey Bears open their Calder Cup playoff run this week. Game one is Wednesday night in Hershey, versus the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in an Atlantic Division best-of-five semifinal series. Hershey is seeking its 14th AHL championship overall. Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Governor Josh Shapiro’s office announced outgoing Attorney General Michelle Henry will take on a new role next year. Tom Riese from WESA explains Henry was appointed the state's next inspector general. A Pennsylvania law that lays out how and when utilities can shut off customers’ services expires at the end of the year because state lawmakers couldn't agree on a replacement in time. However, Sophia Schmidt from WHYY explains some consumer protections will continue. A new medical licensing program could expand telehealth access to addiction treatment in Pennsylvania. Kiley Koscinski from WESA in Pittsburgh has more.Sweden is home to a renaissance in clean manufacturing. Fed by the country’s low-carbon electric grid, the country has projects in the pipeline that would make ‘fossil free’ steel, chemicals, and other products. Reid Frazier at The Allegheny Front asked people in Sweden what they think about the energy transition. Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey gave his farewell remarks in the Senate Wednesday… by thanking his staff, highlighting legislation he championed and warning of the challenges ahead. If you're traveling by air this holiday season... you might be wondering how flying impacts climate pollution. Sophia Schmidt from our friends at WHYY breaks it down. In Europe, companies are beginning to find ways to cut climate pollution for heavy industries like steel. But this transition has yet to happen in the U.S. What will it take to bring these technologies to American shores? The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier went to Sweden to find out. Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Asia Tabb speaks with Reid Frazier and Rachel McDevitt for our Journalist Roundtable. Also, on the program, Asia speaks with Brandon Buterbaugh Director of Bands at Hershey High School and Eric Farkas, Band Director at Cumberland Valley High School about all things marching band!Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beaver County's Shell cracker makes nurdles — those lentil-sized pellets that become our plastics — but the glowing, riverfront facility is just the part we can see. There's a 97-mile underground pipeline that delivers its raw materials, and state investigators say its construction led to thousands of gallons of hazardous drilling mud spills in all three Pennsylvania counties it passes through. The Allegheny Front's Reid Frazier explains why whistleblowers came forward, what the Attorney General's office found, and how these 13 misdemeanor criminal charges could play out in court. Learn more about our sponsor, the Pittsburgh Opera. They're presenting The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, April 27 through May 5, at the Byham Theater. Become a member of City Cast Pittsburgh at membership.citycast.fm. Want more Pittsburgh news?  Sign up for our daily morning Hey Pittsburgh newsletter. We're on Instagram @CityCastPgh. Text or leave us a voicemail at 412-212-8893. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of The Confluence:U.S. Steel has tentatively settled with two groups, PennEnvironment and the Clean Air Council, who sued over the impact of the December 2018 Clairton Coke Works fire. We hear more from Reid Frazier, energy reporter at the Allegheny Front. (0:00 - 5:30) A local group is fundraising to help build a center to raise and train service dogs for veterans impacted by traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. Bill Jeffcoat, president of Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans, and Craig Hodgkins, a veteran with a service dog named Foxy, joins the show to talk about the canines' work. (5:35 - 14:18) It's been exactly two months since a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio released toxic chemicals. Many residents in the small, rural town are trying to get back to their ordinary lives, even as large trucks with toxic waste still drive the roads. 90.5 WESA's Oliver Morrison went to East Palestine to report on one effort to bring some normalcy back: The school musical. (14:23 - 22:30) The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA's daily news program. Tune in Monday to Friday at 9 a.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here for wherever you get your podcasts.

Shell is opening an Ethane Cracker in Beaver County, but we still have some questions. Like why here, in Western Pennsylvania of all places? How it will impact jobs and our rivers? And what does an ethane cracker even… do? The Allegheny Front's Reid Frazier is with us to explain why the plant picked us, and what it means for both the economy and wellbeing of our region. Check out the great reporting from he and his colleagues here. Our newsletter is fresh daily at 6 a.m. Sign up here. We're also on Twitter @citycastpgh & Instagram @CityCastPgh! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this West Virginia Morning, every year the Pennsylvania game commission traps and tags hundreds of black bears. It's part of the state's ongoing census of its black bear population. This summer, the Allegheny Front's Reid Frazier went out with a team looking for bears.

For some, winter can be a difficult time -- dark and cold. For others, time outside in the winter is a powerful experience. After everything we've been through in the past year, getting outside can be one way to help with the stress. Taking a break from social media and the news, getting bundled up and venturing out into nature, even just for five minutes, can help.  In this episode of Inside Appalachia, we'll go outside into a cold, crisp forest on a winter hike. We'll hear why the winter months actually provide unique opportunities to hear birds.  We'll also learn about a group of Italian immigrants who escaped religious persecution and moved to the mountains of North Carolina. They brought cultural traditions, including winemaking, to this small pocket of Appalachia.  And we'll also delight in one town's twist on the classic West Virginia slaw dog -- the “Marmet Yellow slaw dog.” The dish has been around since the 1930s but isn't widely known outside this tiny Kanawha County town.  Love Of Snow A few years ago, Reid Frazier, a reporter with the Allegheny Front, wrote a story about his children's love of snow, and what it taught him about embracing the simple joys of the new year.  Birds Of Winter Andy Kubis, a producer for The Allegheny Front headed out for a winter hike with Gabi Hughes, an environmental educator at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve north of Pittsburgh. The reserve is run by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, Their aim was to find out what there is to see and hear in the coldest months of the year. Blocking A Pipeline Some of Appalachia's most rugged and beautiful places are located along the Allegheny Mountains. Straddling Virginia and West Virginia, this stretch of mountains is the site of the 300-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, a major natural gas pipeline project. But it's still incomplete.  This is partly because of activists. The Yellow Finch tree-sits have blocked the pipeline in Virginia for more than two years. In November, a judge ordered the protesters out, but the tree sitters are still there. Inside Appalachia co-host Mason Adams has been reporting on this issue for the last six years. He recently visited Yellow Finch, and brings us this update. Using The Bright Sunshine Companies and government officials are promising to use more renewable energy as a way to address climate change. One way to do that is to build solar farms, but a solar farm needs flat land. That's something that's in short supply in Appalachia.   Developers have found some flat land in portions of Appalachia, including in Pennsylvania. StateImpact Pennsylvania's Rachel McDevitt reports how the solar industry could take some communities by surprise. They might just push back. Hot Dog! Folkways reporter Zack Harold takes a long look into a hot dog slaw recipe that is being revived in a town near Charleston, West Virginia. He called up Inside Appalachia host Caitlin Tan to talk about this unique take on the iconic West Virginia hotdog. Making Wine In the 1890s, a few dozen Italian immigrants settled in Valdese, North Carolina. They built communal bread-baking ovens, they made a special type of sausage, played bocce ball and they made wine. Rebecca Williams of our Folkways Reporting Corps has the story. 

For months on end, Pruitt seemed to defy the laws of gravity at the EPA, maintaining his job through more than a dozen scandals. But Pruitt’s term has ended after it was reported that President Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly--presumably at the president’s behest--asked Pruitt for his resignation.  So the big question is--why now? And, importantly, what happens next? On this episode Reid Frazier talks with Zack Colman, a reporter with E&E News. 

There is a building boom for pipelines all across the country right now. And that’s created anxiety about new pipelines close to where people live and work. While the federal government is trying to ratchet up safety rules, there are limits on what these new rules can do. In western Pennsylvania, residents are especially concerned after an interstate gas pipeline ruptured east of Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier reports for Inside Energy.

Burning natural gas for electricity is much cleaner than coal. But there's a problem - leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Nearly two years ago Colorado implemented rules to try to limit methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure. Now the EPA is proposing to model federal rules on Colorado's. Still finding and plugging leaks remains a challenge nationwide. In Pennsylvania, where thousands of gas wells and pipelines are working the Marcellus Shale, researchers are trying to figure out how much is leaking. For our Inside Energy project, The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier tagged along.

We often hear about the economic costs of environmental regulation on the energy industry But there’s a flip side to that equation - the price society pays for pollution. One scientist has added up those costs and found they’re going down. For Inside Energy, Reid Frazier went to find out why.

Wyoming gets nearly 90% of its electricity from coal-fired power plants. A series of new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency requires those plants to install new pollution controls - its either install, or close down. Nearly half of the electricity currently generated by coal in Wyoming is now either in compliance with mercury rules, or racing towards a compliance deadline. It is an expensive job. For Inside Energy, Reid Frazier of the Allegheny Front takes us inside a plant being retrofitted in Pennsylvania.

Congress is looking to Pennsylvania for innovative ways to clean up the environmental damage from coal mining. Washington is calling in the wake of a mine blow out last summer that caused three million gallons of polluted water to spill and turned the Colorado's Animas River bright yellow. For Inside Energy, Reid Frazier of the Allegheny Front has the story.

Coal is in a long decline in Central Appalachia(APP-ah-LATCH-uh). Even though coal mining jobs are disappearing there—the imprint of coal on the landscape is everywhere. More than a million acres of strip-mined land -- an area the size of Rhode Island -- are now deforested. Inside Energy is collaborating with Allegheny Front in Pennsylvania, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting on a new series on the future of coal. In our first story, Reid Frazier reports from Eastern Kentucky.