Pennsylvania natural gas producer CNX Resources Corporation has sued Capital & Main for defamation over the news organization’s reporting on the health risks of the company’s operations.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Western District of Pennsylvania, CNX accuses Capital & Main of publishing false and defamatory statements in a September 24, 2024 story with the headline “Pennsylvania Gas Driller: Our Operations Pose No Health Risk. You Can’t Be Serious, Activists Say.” The lawsuit seeks an award of damages, attorneys’ fees and costs and other, unspecified relief from the court.
Publisher Danny Feingold vowed to fight the lawsuit.
“We stand by our reporting,” Feingold said. “Capital & Main is widely recognized as a leading source of coverage on the health and environmental impacts of fossil fuel production, both in Pennsylvania and multiple other states. We have earned this recognition through scrupulous, fact-based reporting, and the story cited in the lawsuit adheres to these rigorous standards.”
The lawsuit alleges that “Capital & Main served as a mouthpiece for one-sided and unbalanced attacks by renewable energy activists.” The story focused on the gas company’s efforts to recast its environmental image with an industry-written “Radical Transparency” study the company has said demonstrates that its fracking operations pose “no public health risk.”
The story cited the report and quoted the CNX CEO’s public statement saying the initial results “indicate that natural gas development done the CNX way is safe and inherently good for the communities where we operate.” The story also presented differing perspectives, including quotes from leaders of environmental groups who criticized the report as unsound.
Capital & Main requested comment from CNX prior to publication of the story, but the company did not respond at that time.
Feingold said the lawsuit would not deter Capital & Main from its mission of producing accountability reporting on climate change.
