Protect PT (Penn-Trafford) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2014 with the mission to ensure the safety, security, and quality of life for residents in Penn Township, Trafford, and surrounding communities in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The organization was established as a grassroots, community-based group in response to concerns about the potential impacts of natural gas drilling near residential areas. Protect PT educates, empowers, and engages residents and landowners that are confronted with new extractive industry neighbors and related nuisances.
The organization empowers residents to participate in local government processes, meetings and hearings to advocate for the protection of community rights. A significant aspect of Protect PT’s mission is to challenge zoning ordinances that permit industrial activities, such as natural gas drilling, in non-industrial zones.
It also engages local lawmakers and regulators to remind them that the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment safeguards citizens’ rights to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of natural resources. When needed, Protect PT works to protect those rights through their legal advocacy.
Protect PT focuses on educating residents and local lawmakers by providing factual information through educational meetings, guest speakers, research, and published resources. The Living Near Shale Gas Community Workshop series is example of its outreach.
This is a series of trainings that cover topics surrounding oil and gas development, from extraction and production, to transportation and waste issues. The workshop series mirrors the Living Near Shale Gas Resource Guide, a binder Protect PT put together with resources designed to help protect resident’s homes and livelihoods.
These trainings are free, open to the public, and includes lunch. Participants will receive a copy of the Guide when they attend a training. The next Living Near Shale Gas Workshop is coming up on Sunday March 9. For more information and to register visit the ProtectPT.org/events.
