Area environmental and faith-based organizations including Benedictines for Peace are organizing a rally and a prayer service on Wednesday, September 23, outside the Bayfront Convention Center. The gathering protests Shale Insight, the annual convention of the fossil fuel lobby that wants to increase fracking and build mega data centers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Those attending this conference support proposed AI data centers and fracked-gas power plants, including in Homer City, Pennsylvania.
A 10:15 to 11:00 am rally will feature messages from PennFuture’s campaign for a moratorium on data centers and from Concerned Residents of Western Pennsylvania (CROW), a community movement to protect Homer City. Ohio residents will detail the effects of data centers and fracking on their local communities and state parks. The rally is cosponsored by Hold Erie Coke Accountable, PennFuture, Third Act Ohio, and CROW. It will be live streamed on Facebook.
There will be a prayer service from 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm outside the Shale Insight Conference. It is part of Season of Creation, an annual ecumenical period of prayer and action for the environment observed by Christians worldwide from September 1 to October 4. Deb Seng, Justice Coordinator for the Sisters of St Joseph, said, “As people of faith, a prayer expression for creation outside the Shale Insight Convention is an act of lament for the suffering of the earth, a witness to the change needed in our hearts and in our society, and a profound act of hope for a different future.” This prayer witness is co-sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of Erie, the Sisters of St Joseph of Northwest Pennsylvania Justice Team, Benedictines for Peace, the Episcopal Cathedral of St Paul, Third Act Faith Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Gannon University Center for Social Concerns.
