Patriots From The Oil & Gas Shales educates the public and lawmakers on the risks of fracking and provides support to those who have been harmed by the industry. Founded in 2011 by Craig Stevens in Pennsylvania, the campaign highlights fracking’s contamination of water tables and its links to severe health issues. “In 2023, we helped a couple with two small children, near Dimock, in northeast Pennsylvania, whose ground well water went bad because of nearby drilling. The children were getting chemically burned in the bathtub; they were getting nosebleeds, vomiting, and headaches. We turned off their well water and installed a system in their basement with a tank and pump. Now, the husband comes to get fresh water with his truck from my hydrant,” Stevens says. “In 2025, in America, somebody has to go haul water a couple times a week.” Collaborating with other activists, Stevens exposes the reality of rampant fossil fuel extraction and supports communities nationwide to mobilize against it.
Craig Stevens with actor and Water Defense founder Mark Ruffalo outside the Pennsylvania state capitol.
While Stevens works closely with other groups, including Frack Action, the FracTracker Alliance, and Water Defense, he alone runs Patriots From The Oil & Gas Shales. A sixth-generation landowner in northeast Pennsylvania, Stevens notes that while rural areas are directly affected by fracking’s immediate side effects, low-income Black and Hispanic people in cities are more likely to endure air pollution due to living near gas compressor stations and export terminals. Stevens meets with senators, testifies before legislatures, and gives educational tours of gas fields. He stresses the need for a bipartisan approach. “You have to be able to have a dialogue – what we have in common is the need for clean water, air and soil,” he says, holding up a bottle of mud-brown water. It has proven fruitful, with Stevens and his co-campaigners helping communities secure five state-wide fracking bans and the halting of seven major pipelines: “Our team educated locals – and they fought and won.”
Craig Stevens with investigative journalist Melissa Troutman at the 2024 Community Sentinel Awards.