Green Party Elders Member Barbara Laxon isn’t staying idle during her retirement. She is working to get the state of Pennsylvania to plug thousands of open, abandoned oil wells in Pennsylvania.

Abandoned oil and gas wells leave PA with a costly problem

Thousands of abandoned wells remain across Pennsylvania. One Bradford retiree has spent years helping find the ones the state doesn’t know about.

Pennsylvania has thousands of these wells. The full number is unknown, but estimates range from around 20,000 to as high as 750,000. They can emit methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and leak toxic substances that pollute their surroundings.

While Barbara has been active taking people on tours to see these wells, she now spends most of her time educating people about the issue. Her work is connected with Pennsylvania’s Save Our Streams.

….she takes people and advocacy organizations on tours of Bradford and the surrounding areas. She’s led tours with Physicians for Social Responsibility and Food and Water Watch.

Barbara also aligns her work with her active involvement in the Green Party, having been a member since the 1990s, with 38 years with the Green Party of Florida and the last 10 years as a member of the Green Party of Pennsylvania. She is active on the Core Team and Communications Team of her state party. She also works on the national Green Party Peace Action and Eco-Action Committees and is a member of the National Women’s and Elders Caucuses. “What ever I can get myself onto,” says Barbara. Outside of Green Party work, Barbara also participates with the Raging Grannies in her area.

Read more about Barbara and her work here:

Green Party Watchdog in McKean County, PA

The legacy of the oil and gas industry here in Bradford City, McKean County, PA, is centuries-long. It is still poisoning the inhabitants through the leaking oil and gas wells throughout the city. I have had to step up as a watchdog to bring awareness to the public of what is happening in what has become an environmental justice neighborhood.