BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 11, 2026--
Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) announced today its inclusion on Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Charitable Companies. The recognition demonstrates how the company's mission extends beyond utility services, signifying industry leadership in corporate philanthropy through its Essential Foundation.
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“Through our mission, Essential Utilities fulfills the basic needs of our customers by warming their homes and providing clean water,” said CEO and Chairman Christopher Franklin. “Complimenting that important work, our shareholders continue to provide substantial support for the communities we serve through the Essential Foundation. Our commitment to our communities begins with our dedicated team members who volunteer thousands of hours of their time. Coupled with our Foundation dollars – they continue to make an incredible impact in the areas we serve. I am so proud of the work we do with our communities, and we are honored to be recognized by Newsweek for our work.”
Essential celebrates this prestigious honor as it releases its latest Community Impact Report, spotlighting nearly $7.2 Million in community giving in 2025. More than 1,250 Essential volunteers spent 4,900 hours volunteering to support meaningful causes in their communities.
Each year, Essential gives back through various campaigns in line with the company’s mission, including:
Since 2020, when Aqua and Peoples Natural Gas merged and Essential Utilities expanded its corporate philanthropy, the company has donated more than $29 million across its 9-state service area and built hundreds of community partnerships.
America’s Most Charitable Companies 2026 is presented by Newsweek in collaboration with Statista, the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. You can see the full award list on Newsweek’s website.
About Essential Utilities
Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) delivers safe, reliable services that improve quality of life for individuals, families and entire communities. With a focus on water, wastewater and natural gas, Essential is committed to sustainable growth, operational excellence, a superior customer experience and premier employer status. We are advocates for the communities we serve, donating more than $4 million from the Essential Foundation each year, and are dedicated stewards of natural lands, protecting thousands of acres of forests and other habitats throughout our footprint. Operating as the Aqua and Peoples brands, Essential serves approximately 5.5 million people across 9 states. Essential is one of the most significant publicly traded water, wastewater service and natural gas providers in the U.S. Learn more at www.essential.co.
About Statista
Statista publishes hundreds of worldwide industry rankings and company listings with high-profile media partners. This research and analysis service is based on the success of statista.com, the leading data and business intelligence portal that provides statistics, business-relevant data, and various market and consumer studies and surveys.
Essential Utilities Honored Among America’s Most Charitable Companies 2026 by Newsweek; Announces Nearly $7.2 Million Community Giving in 2025
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Meta is raising the prospect of shutting down its social media services in New Mexico in response to a push by state prosecutors for fundamental changes to the company's platforms, including Instagram, to protect the mental health and safety of children.
The possibility emerged amid legal gamesmanship in the runup to a bench trial next week on allegations that Meta poses a public nuisance. It's the second phase of a case that already resulted in $375 million in civil penalties on a jury's determination that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Prosecutors are asking the court to order a series of changes to child accounts on social media aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.
Meta executives have emphasized that the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive social media use. The company says its being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use.
In a court filing unsealed Thursday, Meta said it was unfeasible for the company to meet a proposed requirement for 99% accuracy in verifying that child users are at least 13 years old, among other demands.
“As a practical matter, this requirement effectively requires Meta to shut down its services — for all users in the state — or else comply with impossible obligations,” Meta said in the filing.
Such a shutdown across a population of 2.1 million residents in New Mexico could silence personal communication on Meta’s immensely popular platforms, which also include Facebook and WhatsApp, and also impact their use for commercial advertising.
By withdrawing from New Mexico, Meta would satisfy any concerns about harm to children, but the message could appear intentionally hostile and might lead to unintended consequences, said Eric Goldman, codirector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California.
Goldman noted that Canadian authorities accused Facebook in 2023 of putting profits over safety after the platform blocked local news content during record-setting wildfires and evacuations. Facebook was responding to a newly enacted law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
A Los Angeles jury last month found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services, validated longstanding concerns about the dangers of social media.
New Mexico’s case against Meta is the first to reach trial among more that 40 state attorneys general who have filed suit against the company on claims it contributes to a mental health crisis among young people. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court.
“I highly doubt that they’re going to be willing and able to turn the lights off for their product all over the country,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in an online news conference.
Torrez disputed Meta’s argument that proposed changes are impractical, describing “before times” in an ever-evolving social media landscape when “we didn’t have infinite scroll and we didn’t have auto-play.” Torrez, a Democrat running for reelection to a second term in November, said he won’t be “turning a blind eye to exploited children in the state of New Mexico because people have an advertising contract.”
Beyond the U.S., other countries have implemented — or are planning — a bevy of restrictions on children’s online activities, ranging from social media bans to requiring younger teens to link their accounts to a parent’s. New Mexico also wants all child accounts on Meta platforms to have an associated parent or guardian, as well as a court-supervised child safety monitor to track improvements over time.
Goldman said there are some countries that Facebook “doesn’t directly support in part because it’s just not worth it.”
"The cost of maintaining the separate service is greater than any value from that territory,” he said. “And that could be the case with New Mexico as well.”
FILE - Visitors take photos at a sign outside Meta headquarters March 26, 2026, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - A recording of Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's deposition is played for the jurors on March 4, 2026, in Santa Fe, N.M. (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, Pool, File)
