Paradise Community, Henderson Township, Jefferson County, PA, November 14, 2012 – J. Stephen Cleghorn, PhD, a Pennsylvania organic farmer, has become the first landowner in the United States to use a conservation easement to recognize and protect the rights of water, forest, and wild ecosystems. The easement then bans activities, like shale gas hydro-fracking, which would violate those rights, and elevates the rights of nature above the power claimed by extractive energy corporations to despoil the environment. Cleghorn is the owner of Paradise Gardens and Farm– a fifty acre organic farm that sits above the Marcellus Shale formation in Henderson Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Cleghorn established the easement in memory of his late wife, Dr. Lucinda Hart-González who died of lung cancer on November 14, 2011. In a ceremony held on May 10 of this year Ms. Hart-González's ashes were scattered on the property and the farm was declared forever inviolate and off-limits to shale gas fracking.

Voters in Ferguson Township, Centre County Pennsylvania adopted a Community Bill of Rights guaranteeing the right to clean air, pure water, a sustainable energy future, the peaceful enjoyment of home, the right of ecosystems to exist and flourish, and the right to exercise self-government in the local community. To protect these rights, the amendment also bans corporations from conducting shale gas drilling and related activities in the community.

By a unanimous vote, the Borough Council of Forest Hills, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, voted to adopt a Local Bill of Rights, along with a prohibition on natural gas extraction to protect those rights. The bill, titled “Forest Hills Borough’s Community Rights and Protection from Natural Gas Exploitation Ordinance” establishes specific rights for Borough residents, including the Right to Water, the Rights of Natural Communities, the Right to a Sustainable Energy Future, and the Right to Community Self-Government.

Washington County Judge Paul Pozonsky turned down a request by Peters Township Council to bar a referendum question from appearing on the ballot in November that, if approved by the voters, would create a local Bill of Rights and ban fracking. Judge Pozonsky ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction to impose an injunction against the proposed home rule charter amendment, and that allowing the voters to approve or deny the adoption of the amendment did not create an immediate harm to the township.

By a unanimous vote, the Borough Council of Forest Hills, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, voted to advertise a Community Rights Ordinance that if adopted would enact an enforceable Local Bill of Rights, along with a prohibition on natural gas extraction to protect those rights.

By a unanimous vote, the Warren County Board of Elections today reversed their decision to prevent a petitioned Home Rule Charter Amendment from appearing on the November ballot.

On Monday, August 1st, Pittsburgh City Council, by a vote of 6-3, approved the placing of a referendum question on the November ballot that will allow City residents to amend the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter. The proposed amendment includes a Community Bill of Rights, and a ban on extraction of “natural” gas within the City to protect those rights. Council members voting in favor of the measure were Burgess, Harris, Kraus, Peduto, Rudiak and Shields. Voting against the measure were Dowd, Kail-Smith and Lavelle.

The Ordinance establishes a Bill of Rights for the Baldwin community and imposes the prohibition as a protection of those rights. The law was modeled after the CELDF Ordinance adopted by the City of Pittsburgh. Similar ordinances have been enacted by Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, West Homestead PA, Licking Township PA, Wales NY and have been introduced as bills by communities in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.

The bill was modeled after the Ordinance adopted on November 16th of last year by the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Similar ordinances have been enacted by Mountain Lake Park, MD, West Homestead, PA, Licking Township, PA, and have been introduced as bills by communities in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.

The bill, titled “West Homestead Borough’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance; establishes specific rights of West Homestead residents, including the Right to Water, the Rights of Natural Communities, the Right to a Sustainable Energy Future, and the Right to Community Self-Government. “Our council feels that we are protecting our community's right to clean air and water as guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Constitution. We are protecting the health, safety and welfare of our citizens and our right to self govern. We are very comfortable with our decision." ---Council President Dave Weir

Two key prohibitions are enacted to protect the rights enumerated. The Ordinance bans “ any individual or corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas or oil utilizing in whole or in part the process commonly known as and herein defined as hydraulic fracturing” and also prohibits “any individual or corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas or oil utilizing in whole or in part the process commonly known as horizontal gas well drilling,” with the exception, in each case, of gas wells installed and operating at the time of enactment of the Ordinance.

This ordinance isn’t only about gas drilling. It’s about answering the question “who decides?” Community residents first approached borough council with the ordinance and a request for a hearing in August of 2010. Since then, requests for a hearing have been repeated at council meetings in November and December, to no avail, and the request was defeated by a 3-3 vote in January. Last night’s vote came following a community meeting on the measure, sponsored by borough residents and held at the Borough Hall on February 12th. During last night’s public comment period, resident Rae Dziak, a shoreline property owner and local realtor, addressed the council saying that “property values will be zero if the lake is contaminated by the fracking process.” She also objected to “the arrogance of members of Council” who refused to be guided by the will of the people and consider the community rights ordinance.

For Immediate Release: Today, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance banning corporations from conducting natural gas drilling in the city. The ordinance was drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) at the invitation of Councilman Bill Peduto, and was introduced by Councilman Doug Shields.

We the People of Cheltenham (WtPoC) announces that the 2010 Petition Campaign to amend thee Home Rule Charter and simplify the initiative and referendum process for residents of Cheltenham, has come to a successful close. Specifically, this amendment would make it easier for citizens of Cheltenham, through the petitioning process, to propose new ordinances and for registered voters to either accept or reject them, and it would make it easier for citizens of Cheltenham, through the petitioning process, to require the Board of Commissioners to review and change an existing ordinance, or if they refuse to change it, to allow the voters to decide if it should be changed.

The new Ordinance asserts that the “The people of Packer Township declare that the building of a sustainable Packer Township requires not only the outright nullification of the doctrine of preemption when it prohibits the people of Packer Township from adopting higher standards than those set forth in state law, but also requires the people of Packer Township to refuse to recognize the authority of the Attorney General or the courts, when those entities attempt to enforce the legislature’s illegitimate acts.”

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled today against the State’s Attorney General and in favor of Packer Township - a rural Carbon County Township which has banned corporate sewage sludge spreading within their municipality.

Bans Corporate Sewage Sludge Dumping; Becomes Fourth Community in Nation to Ban Chemical Bodily Trespass; Denies Claim that Constitutional Rights of People belong to Corporations