On September 23, 2025, CNX Resources Corporation (CNX), a Pennsylvania natural gas producer, filed a defamation lawsuit in the federal district court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against  Capital & Main, which the complaint alleged was “a California-based environmental media outlet that is funded by renewable energy interests.”  The complaint alleged that Capital & Main published a “hit piece” about CNX’s “Radical Transparency” program, which the complaint describes as involving monitoring and real-time reporting on air quality, waste, and water quality at certain gas well pads. The complaint alleged that the article “serves as the mouthpiece for certain … climate and renewable energy activists to make false and defamatory statements regarding CNX” and a report on the Radical Transparency program. The complaint alleged that “[w]hile Capital & Main and the renewable energy activists quoted in the Article may have the right to criticize the methodology of the Report or the conclusions drawn in the Report, the Article became legally actionable when it published purportedly fact-based statements accusing CNX of such serious business misconduct as alleged fabrication of data and alleged securities market manipulation in connection with the release of the Report.” CNX sought damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, such other relief as the court deemed appropriate.

Defamation lawsuit brought by Pennsylvania natural gas producer against an environmental media outlet alleging that the defendant published a “hit piece” about the company's environmental monitoring and reporting program.

CNX Resources Corp. v. Capital & Main

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

CNX Resources Corp. v. Capital & Main - complaint

Filed

United States of America

Pennsylvania

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Geohazards are adverse geological phenomenon's that are capable of causing widespread damage or loss to property, life and the environment, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. Climate change can increase the frequency and severity of some geohazards, such as landslides, and soil erosion.

CNX Resources Corp. v. Capital & Main - complaint

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance