Episode for November 15, 2024: Environmental justice and the hydrogen hubs
Release Date: 11/15/2024
Episode for September 19, 2025: The Mighty Mon(ongahela River)
The Allegheny Front
We’re in the midst of our Fall Member Drive. We’re asking our listeners to become members with a donation of any size. Your membership will help us keep the lights on and the environmental news flowing. We’re independent and non-profit, and we don’t get money from WESA, WPSU or any other radio station. So we must turn to you, our listeners, for support. Take action today so we can continue to keep you informed. Or send us a check to: The Allegheny Front, 67 Bedford Square, Pittsburgh, 15203. And thanks! On this week's episode: We're launching a new series about the...
info_outline
Episode for September 12, 2025: Food waste solutions
The Allegheny Front
Get our newsletter every Tuesday morning so you'll never miss an environmental story. Food waste is a big climate problem. In Pittsburgh, you can drop off your food waste for composting at city-run farmers’ markets. A startup is helping restaurants, schools and hospitals manage their food waste with a digester that fits into a shipping container. The easiest way to compost your food scraps might just be in your own backyard. Dozens of schools in Pennsylvania are planning to build solar panels on their roofs despite federal tax credits ending early. A new...
info_outline
September 5, 2025 Episode: Health improved after coke plant closure; glass recycling and a cool tourist attraction
The Allegheny Front
Get our newsletter every Tuesday morning so you'll never miss an environmental story. This week on The Allegheny Front, we talk to a researcher who found that health improved for residents after the closure of a coke plant that processed coal for the steel industry. He said, "There was like a healing going on in the community as the cumulative impacts of the pollution were reduced." We visit a glass recycling plant in Western Pennsylvania. Even though "glass is infinitely recyclable, which other systems can't necessarily tout," Pennsylvania is behind other states when it comes to glass...
info_outline
Episode for August 29, 2025: PA farmers, steelworkers and elk
The Allegheny Front
Farmers at an agricultural summit voiced concerns over how new tariffs might affect their customers who buy locally. With air monitors, an environmental group is publishing real-time pollution data for people who live near the ethane cracker and other industries in Beaver County. A Pittsburgh-based environmental group has issued a formal notice of intent to sue companies for polluting the Allegheny River with oil. Several dozen steelworkers and supporters marched in Downtown Pittsburgh to call for safer workplaces. Pennsylvania's elk cam has started up again for the rutting season. ...
info_outline
Episode for August 22, 2025
The Allegheny Front
A computer scientist wanted to build a watch using a living organism. What ended up working was slime mold. An environmental history book about Pennsylvania aims to include multiple perspectives. A new study says schools across Pennsylvania aren't addressing environmental hazards in their buildings. The campgrounds at Raystown Lake closed because of a freeze on hiring workers are reopening on a phased schedule. We’re independent and non-profit, and we don’t get money from WESA, WPSU or any other radio station. So we must turn to you, our listeners, for support. Take action today so we can...
info_outline
Episode for August 15, 2025: Deadly explosion at U.S. Steel coke plant
The Allegheny Front
An explosion at a U.S. Steel coke plant outside of Pittsburgh killed two workers and sent 10 to the hospital. We'll hear a worker's first-hand account of the incident and what nearby residents in the Mon River valley are saying. The plant has a history of maintenance problems, explosions, and environmental violations. Climate change is making it harder to keep invasive plants away from recreational trails in Pennsylvania. Volunteers are working to make trail systems more climate resilient. The Environmental Protection Agency has canceled a $7 billion Biden-era program to build rooftop solar....
info_outline
Episode for August 8, 2025: Air pollution relief on hold
The Allegheny Front
The Trump administration has paused new rules that would have reduced air pollution from steel mills drifting into surrounding communities. What advocates and residents who live near U.S. Steel plants are saying. Wildfire smoke from Canada is contributing to home-grown air pollution, and what we can do about it. A Pittsburgh-area library is loaning gas-free cooktops for patrons to test out. The families of four West Virginia children have sued a Pittsburgh-based gas producer over health effects from fracking. An annual road trip aimed at dispelling myths about electric vehicles stopped...
info_outline
Episode for August 1, 2025: Throwing out the Endangerment Finding
The Allegheny Front
Electricity prices are rising, and many are pointing the finger at the new energy demand created by data centers. An energy expert on where this is all heading. The Trump administration is moving to overturn the scientific finding that greenhouse gases are bad for public health. A Washington County gas company is facing criminal charges for a massive leak at a gas storage field. More than two years after the disaster in East Palestine, lawmakers are still trying to increase safety regulations on railroads. We tag along on a wildflower hike in the incomparable Dolly Sods Wilderness. We’re...
info_outline
Episode for July 25, 2025: What happens to solar now?
The Allegheny Front
Solar installations on homes have been booming because of tax breaks from the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, those incentives are going away. Pennsylvania could also lose $156 million meant to help low-income people reduce their energy bills through solar power. But seventy acres of a former steel slag heap is almost cleaned up and ready to transform into a sea of solar panels. The price for energy is rising at the region's electric grid operator. Companies that mine metallurgical coal are now in line to receive a 2.5 percent tax credit thanks to President Trump's budget bill. We’re...
info_outline
Episode for July 18, 2025: Energy for data centers
The Allegheny Front
President Trump was in Pittsburgh whipping up support for building data centers and the gas infrastructure to power them. But many worry that electricity ratepayers will get stuck with higher bills as demand for energy grows. A new online tool helps people who live near industrial facilities learn more about the chemicals and pollutants they’re being exposed to. Clean air quality advocates in Allegheny County held a virtual town hall meeting this week to push for increasing certain industrial operating fees. Cleanup work at a contaminated former dishware factory site in Falls Creek,...
info_outlineLast year the Biden administration tasked federal agencies with considering environmental justice in their decisionmaking. Some say that isn't happening as planning for the seven new hydrogen hubs moves forward nationwide. Water quality in Pennsylvania streams is being hindered by aging dams, many of which are dangerous and obsolete. Climate-related weather like flash floods and extreme heat impacts people experiencing homelessness.
Also, an environmental group wants state regulators to tighten water pollution restrictions on a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh which has released oil into the Monongahela River. Friends of the Riverfront released a new plan for recreation in Pittsburgh’s three rivers. PECO, formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company, has agreed to add solar energy to its mix of sources that generate electricity for customers in southeast Pennsylvania.
Help us gear up to hold newly elected officials accountable at the state and federal levels and keep an eye on those in power - by becoming a member with your donation.
All gifts will be doubled through December 31st. Thanks to everyone who has already become a member!