The yellow house at 877 Fraser Road went up for sale in January, not long after the 150-foot derrick settled in the pasture just to the southwest. The rig is there to drill eight natural gas wells into the Marcellus Shale from a gravel pad a football field away from the property line on a ridgetop in Susquehanna County. Anna Fisco-Aubree, a former nurse in her 60s, and her husband, Maurice Aubree, 77, moved from New York to the country 17 years ago. They were looking for quiet in the expanse of farms and hills around their 4-acre lot. Now that noise has found them, they feel there is no way to stay.

In the fall of 2007 seven people – active on neighborhood, social justice, and environmental fronts – gathered in a small living room in one of Spokane, Washington’s poorest neighborhoods to talk about their community. Seated on a puffy brown couch or on the floor – drinks and snacks within arm’s reach – the group considered two questions: 1. What do we want in our community? and 2. Who decides? They had asked themselves these questions because they understood that the tools, outlets, and options currently in place through law and governance were not only inadequate but are at the core of rapid environmental, social, and economic decline found in communities across the United States.

People in communities across America are struggling to stop corporations from wielding the law of the land and colluding with government officials to deny people’s fundamental right to govern their communities.... Some who have lived through this disheartening process have come to understand that resisting corporate assaults by opposing their many permit applications, and trying to zone them away, is simply a waste of time. Some have begun to look for — and forge — different goals and different strategies.

The Carlyle Group's bid to buy the parent company of Mountain Water hit a nerve with Mickey Hawkins. Hawkins, who moved to Missoula in her college years and is a longtime community volunteer, usually stays quiet on causes. But she has woken up at night worried that people don't know enough about the pending sale and how it could affect Missoula's water.

A movement is underfoot in some 130 communities that's had citizens writing local laws to assert control over things like water - and ban unwelcome corporate activities. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is in the lead, and associate director Mari Margil said the Pennsylvania-based organization is in the midst of a grass-roots effort that's decades in the making.

The Envision Spokane group, which CELDF helped found, is launching a new initiative campaign. The "Community Bill of Rights" expands rights for people, workers, neighborhoods, and nature.

A large crowd attended a public hearing in a New York town on a law to ban hydro-fracking and horizontal drilling for natural gas and oil, town officials said. Tuesday's hearing was for a measure intended to give residents of the Town of Wales the right to protect their natural resources from damage from hydro-fracking, a technique that uses water-laced chemicals to fracture subterranean rock to release oil and natural gas deposits, the Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported.

Union-Finley Messenger: Residents of Peters Township packed the Council Chambers on January 24 to hear the proposal of an environmental attorney who asked council to consider a total ban on natural gas drilling within the township. The speaker was Ben Price, Project Director of the Community Environmental Defense Fund, whose group assisted the City of Pittsburgh in writing their ordinance to establish a complete ban on Marcellus Shale drilling within city limits. CELDF NOTE: This article incorrectly identifies Ben Price as an attorney and as director of CELDF. Ben is the Projects Director for CELDF and does not practice law.

The borough will not adopt an ordinance banning natural gas drilling. After a 1- hour special hearing Tuesday evening, council voted 6-0 against an ordinance that would have made it a crime to extract natural gas within the borough or to withdraw water from sources within the borough for use in gas drilling. After the meeting, [Michele] Boice said she was disappointed that council did not adopt the ordinance....“We’re going to try to support people in the upcoming election who are going to honor the will of the people,” she continued. “We, meaning the people of Harveys Lake who overwhelmingly support this ordinance. We have to elect people who will honor the will of the people.”

"Communities are no longer accepting that they don't have the authority to say ‘no' to megaloads, or drilling, mining, water withdrawals," said Mari Margil, CELDF associate director. "Instead, through legally binding law, they're defining what their communities will look like, and necessarily removing the authority of state and corporations to override the community's self-governing authority."

As proponents and opponents of the gas drilling procedure known as hydraulic fracturing anxiously await the results of a study by the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regarding the potential effects that such drilling would have on the region as a whole, the Town of Wales continues to examine the implications at a local level. The Wales Town Board has set a public hearing for next Tues., March 22 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall on Route 20A to discuss a proposed local law to ban hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling of gas and oil in town. Simon, who largely drafted the proposed law, said at last week’s regular town board meeting, “If we don’t start at the local level, we might not see the steamroller above us. We are all in this together and we will fight it together.”

As more information about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," (a technique used during natural gas drilling) emerges, more and more cities and municipalities are organizing to keep drilling and fracking out of their own communities, but are surprised to find that they do not have the legal authority to say “no” to these corporate activities. Last week, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, with fewer than 2,500 residents, became the latest community to do something about this, adopting the state’s first ordinance banning corporations from natural gas drilling.

A group that sponsored a ballot proposal that was thoroughly rejected by Spokane voters in 2009 says it hopes to offer voters a shorter list of requests this year....“It’s about getting local self-government and making sure you protect community values,” said Kai Huschke, Envision Spokane’s campaign coordinator.

After a 1 hour special hearing Tuesday evening, council voted 6-0 against an ordinance that would have made it a crime to extract natural gas within the borough or to withdraw water from sources within the borough for use in gas drilling.

The ordinance prohibits natural gas extraction in the borough and the extraction of water from sources within the borough for use in natural gas drilling and declares that corporations engaging in natural gas extraction in neighboring municipalities shall be held strictly liable for harm caused to natural water sources and ecosystems in the borough. It further proposes a Local Bill of Rights for Harveys Lake, which enumerates fundamental and inalienable rights to a healthy environment, water and the rights of natural communities and ecosystems. Further clauses declare the residents of the community sovereign, with the municipal government responsible to and governed by the people; declare corporations subordinate to borough residents; and rule that corporations shall not be afforded the same rights as borough residents.

Dubbed the “Harveys Lake Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance,” the measure would make it a crime to extract natural gas within the borough or to withdraw water from sources within the borough for use in hydraulic fracturing or other aspects of natural gas drilling. It would also hold gas companies drilling in neighboring communities strictly liable for environmental damages caused to water sources and ecosystems within the borough.

The Pocono Environmental Coalition and Wildlife Society sponsored a symposium about Marcellus Shale gas drilling held at the Hughes Library, Stroudsburg, on Saturday. In her introduction Elizabeth Greico, president of the coalition, said anything is possible because we no longer have environmental laws to protect us. [Shireen] Parsons, a member of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said ... to reframe the problem, it is not the fracturing, not factory farming, not sludge. Who gets to decide how our health is protected?

Linda Nealon issued the invitation on behalf of Community Counts. She explained that the meeting is meant, “to enlighten the community on the negative impacts of drilling.” She said that a representative of The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund would be in attendance to inform communities of their rights and legal action available to them. “It’s a civil rights issue.” Nealon urged the communities to stand together because “They’re (gas drilling companies) not going away; they’re hear to stay. We have to think of the future, not what’s going on initially.”

In the ongoing face-off between Gov. Scott Walker and public unions in Wisconsin over collective bargaining, one point seems to have been missed. It has to do with what is and is not a right under our system of law.

Ms. Klaber said the industry had no immediate plans to drill in Pittsburgh-- and implored City Council to delay a ban pending further evaluation of Marcellus Shale's pros and cons. But Mr. Shields pressed ahead, citing fear about a return to Pittsburgh's polluted industrial past. Developed with the help of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit law firm in Franklin County, the ban isn't a regulatory move so much as an assertion of civil rights. The firm called the ban a "first-in-the-nation" ordinance that asserts the primacy of community interests over gas company rights.

In addition, Mr. Shields raised the possibility of introducing a bill that would hold upriver municipalities responsible for "toxic trespass" if they let drilling-polluted water flow into the city. He said such a law is in line with other anti-pollution measures already on the books. "You're not allowed to dump anything over the hill. You have to clean up after your dog," he said.

Parsons, who helps communities develop guidelines and regulations for Marcellus shale drilling, said, “You do not have a fracking problem here, you have a democracy problem. You think you have no power against corporations? Well, you do,” she said. She suggested communities organize efforts at a grassroots level.

Residents of Harveys Lake borough, adjacent to the largest natural lake in Pennsylvania of the same name, met Saturday to hear about a possible self-governing ordinance which would protect the municipality from possible problems caused by natural gas drilling.

ELDRED, NY — Despite frigid temperatures and high winds, a large crowd turned out on Saturday, February 19, for an informational forum sponsored by the Highland and Lumberland committees on energy and the environment on the topic of home-rule options as a legal safeguard against the impacts of natural gas extraction.

Tired of being told what their community should look like, a group of Lehigh Valley residents is joining a statewide movement intent on ensuring that a municipality, not the state, decides how it will operate. Residents will host the inaugural meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Northampton Community College's Fowler Center, 511 E. Third St., Bethlehem, Room 523, to launch the Lehigh Valley Community Rights Network. The network is a project of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which provides pro bono legal assistance to defend against proposed projects residents think will harm the region's natural resources or negatively affect the local economy.

McDonnell ... was one of about 150 people who came to Eldred High School's gymnasium Saturday to hear two experts discuss how municipalities can use local ordinances to prohibit drilling. For residents of the Delaware River towns, the hope is that local laws may be able to do what they fear the state and the Delaware River Basin Commission will not: protect a way of life.

After considerable debate and pressure from residents, the Harveys Lake Borough Council voted to hold a public hearing on the Community Environment Legal Defense Fund, the right to self government ordinance. Residents filled the meeting room to a standing-room only capacity Tuesday night. For over an hour, concerned residents and council members faced off over a proposed ordinance written by the CELDF.

A motion to hold a special hearing on a proposed gas-drilling ordinance written by the Community Environment Legal Defense Fund was approved at Tuesday night’s borough council meeting.

After months of pressure by residents, council gave in Tuesday and voted for an official hearing on a proposed ordinance to ban natural gas drilling in the borough.

Tempers flared during a lengthy meeting of Peters Township Council Feb. 14 when audience members argued about a pending ordinance aimed at regulating the extraction of natural gas. During the sometimes contentious meeting, several audience members shouted out comments from their seats, others stood and made remarks out of turn, and still others took the podium, but did not give their names or addresses. Many said they wanted nothing short of a total ban on gas extraction. However, William Johnson, township solicitor, repeatedly said placing a total ban on natural gas drilling would be illegal as the law requires that an area must be allotted for such activity. In fact, the township has designated locations for adult books stores and related legal commercialism.

“What can communities do, to use their local government to achieve the ends they want?” Price said. “To protect the community and to be sure they can preserve it and they can create the kind of community they want to live in and pass on to their children and grandchildren.” With grim faces, residents listened when Price explained the gas industry has many exemptions in its favor including the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, the Superfund Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. These exemptions seem to override any laws local municipalities could enact to prohibit the gas industry, Price said. The ordinance Price presented would establish a Bill of Rights for borough residents banning “commercial extraction of Marcellus Shale natural gas with Harveys Lake borough because that extraction cannot be achieved without violating the rights of residents and communities or endangering their health, safety and welfare.”

Pittsburgh City Council members adopt resolution supporting Buffalo New York's ban on corporate gas extraction to protect the rights of residents, and to subordinate corporations engaged in community-harming behavior to the rights of human and natural communities. Two cities stand against corporate resource colonization: Pittsburgh stands for Rights of the Community over corporate profit, and encourages more communities to take a stand.

Certainly if enough people openly express opposition to this encroachment on nature, humans, the environment and all that is intrinsically New Hampshire, the project will go elsewhere - right? Well, if this were true, Seabrook would never have been built, USA Springs would never have received its building permit, and the Bethlehem landfill would have closed. What can we do? Government of right originates with the people. There needs to be more conversation about rights, before New Hampshire loses more than the Old Man - our common sense, peace and dignity too.

What has driven these communities to such radical action? The typical story involves a handful of local citizens deciding to oppose a corporate practice, such as toxic sludge dumping, which has taken a huge toll on the health, economy, and natural surroundings of their town. After years of fighting for regulatory change, these citizens discover a bitter truth: the U.S. environmental regulatory system consists of a set of interlocking state and federal laws designed by industry to serve corporate interests. With the deck utterly stacked against them, communities are powerless to prevent corporations from destroying the local environment for the sake of profit.

As the Right pushes privatization as a solution to the economic collapse, one organization is teaching communities how to defeat corporations... Across the country, small, disparate groups of people are wising up and taking action to combat corporate control by using a new strategy. And these citizens are winning. One of the first rallying calls has been against the privatization of public water infrastructure and attempts by corporate water bottlers to pilfer spring water, as well. Communities are welcoming "Democracy Schools," run by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, into their towns, in an attempt to better understand the laws that protect corporations and the ways to defeat them.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is working with a dozen Pennsylvania municipalities to protect clean air and water by prohibiting natural gas drilling, but the financial and legal risks associated with the move are keeping many townships away. “You will have the ability to say where it can and cannot go under the municipal planning code,” said Elam Herr, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Townships. “You cannot exclude a legitimate activity whether you agree with it or not. If it’s recognized as a legitimate activity the municipal must properly plan for it.” The best cities and townships can do, said Mr. Herr, is to work within the zoning ordinances to control where natural gas drilling occurs, but not whether it does at all.

Resident Leona Dunnett read sections from a document sent to council as a draft ordinance calling for the banning of the commercial extraction of natural gas because it "violates the civil rights of Murrysville residents and because it threatens the health, safety and welfare of residents and neighborhoods of Murrysville." "I read this to you so that they may be put on record as they exercise the freedom to call for a Community Bill of Rights, principles that have led us to believe we must resist bad law."

As the federal government continues to study a controversial gas drilling technique and the states tinker with their own regulations, some cities and towns are trying to halt local drilling. Philadelphia became the latest to do that on Thursday, when city officials called for at least a temporary ban on new wells in the watershed that serves the city's taps. In November of 2010 Pittsburgh became the first Pennsylvania city to ban drilling within its boundaries. The ordinance was written by an advocacy group called the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is pushing similar laws in municipalities throughout the Marcellus Shale region, including one in Maryland. Ben Price, who is organizing the effort for the defense fund, said the ordinances aim to protect residents' rights to clean air and clean water. He said cities and towns are simply stepping in where state governments refuse to.

An information meeting on Marcellus shale drilling held Friday night at St. Vincent College addressed how local municipalities can try to control natural gas drilling. "Local laws can regulate where they drill, but not how they drill," attorney John Smith of Southpointe-based Smith Butz LLC told more than 50 Westmoreland County residents who attended the panel discussion. Ben Price, projects director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a Chambersburg-based nonprofit law firm, said local municipalities have a few options. "The first one is to do nothing and get fracked with abandon," he said, referring to a process drillers use to induce fractures in rock, allowing natural gas to surface. Up to 6 million gallons of fresh water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the well to force fissures 5,000 to 8,000 feet underground. Another option, Price said, is for municipalities to use zoning to regulate where drilling is located, or to adopt an ordinance similar to Pittsburgh's. Price works as an adviser to Pittsburgh City Council, which in November became the first city in the state to ban gas drilling within city limits, using a "bill of rights" ordinance.

INDUSTRY SPEAKS: The Common Council of the City of Buffalo is considering an ordinance to ban all natural gas drilling within the city limits. Forgetting for a moment that there has been no drilling in the city for years, and that the city is prohibited by state law from enacting such a ban — one Council member was heard to say, “Let them sue us!” — it is perplexing to those familiar with the gas drilling process why such an ordinance would even be considered.

Sarah Buckley, a resident of Wales, N.Y., explained to the audience what residents can do. "I have been working with my hometown of Wales. We had a meeting like this in November. My town is currently in the drafting stage of a ban," Buckley said. She encouraged residents to work with local officials to create community rights ordinances banning hydrofracking.

It was a meeting of a people with a shared hope and a shared concern. A community-run meeting was held on January 13 to, as Don Shelters, who led the meeting, said, “help local towns establish bans to stop hydrofracking.” Along with Shelters, the meeting was facilitated by Sarah Buckley of Wales, who has been assisting her town with the same issue; Natalie Brant, whose husband helped kick off hydrofracking awareness locally by lighting his water on fire for a national news station late last year; Elise Able from Fox Wood Rescue in East Concord and Albert Brown from Frack Action Buffalo. The purpose of this meeting was to get the ball rolling on a method for the town of Concord, and other municipalities, to ban hydrofracking, which, in a word, is the process used by oil and gas companies to obtain natural gas. “This whole issue is so muddied, people don’t know the truth, because we’re told so many different things,” Able said, before showing a PowerPoint® presentation on the fracking fluid recipe used locally.

We have been blessed in Mora County [NM] to have time to organize, to become educated, to contemplate the outcome facing this county in light of Royal Dutch Shell subsidiaries and other corporate plunderers. So, it is time to act. But what should we do? • We can do nothing, but if we do, our communities, air, soil and water will be ruined. • We can follow the instructions of lawyers, legislators and corporate public relations persons who tell us to let existing laws and the regulatory system provide "protection," which, in reality, means allowing state agencies to issue permits to license the destruction that natural gas extraction causes. • We can exercise our fundamental right to self-government in the communities where we live by adopting a community rights ordinance that asserts our civil and democratic rights and then prohibits those corporate activities which violate our rights.

Ordinance No. 2011-01, titled Mountain Lake Park’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, “establishes a Bill of Rights for Mountain Lake Park residents and removes legal powers from gas extraction corporations within the town.” At the heart of the ordinance is the following statement of law: “It shall be unlawful for any corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas within the Town of Mountain Lake Park, with the exception of gas wells installed and operating at the time of enactment of this ordinance.”

The citizens of Mt. Shasta have developed an extraordinary ordinance, set to be voted on in the next special or general election, that would prohibit corporations such as Nestle and Coca-Cola from extracting water from the local aquifer. But this is only the beginning. The ordinance would also ban energy-giant PG&E, and any other corporation, from regional cloud seeding, a process that disrupts weather patterns through the use of toxic chemicals such as silver iodide. More generally, it would refuse to recognize corporate personhood, explicitly place the rights of community and local government above the economic interests of multinational corporations, and recognize the rights of nature to exist, flourish, and evolve. Mt. Shasta is not alone.Rather, it is part of a (so far) quiet municipal movement making its way across the United States in which communities are directly defying corporate rule and affirming the sovereignty of local government.

The city is one step closer to ensuring that its water supply remains in local hands. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting in Gloucester, councilors voted 7 to 1 to file an order for a Home Rule Petition that may ultimately keep control over the water system in local hands.

Buffalo lawmakers condemned a controversial natural gas mining technique known as "fracking" Tuesday, reaffirming their support for a proposed law that would ban the practice. North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr., the ban's lead sponsor, said the city Law Department has been working on a final version that will likely be submitted for Council consideration later this month. He disputed the idea that cities are powerless to regulate fracking. "They can sue us if they want," Golombek said. "When it comes to the safety of our residents and protecting our environment, we do have a responsibility."

In the four decades since Martin Luther King Jr.’s crusade for social and civil rights was cut short, most gains have been less in the realm of human rights than the realm of corporate rights—culminating in a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that removed any doubt that the high court can sense a meaningful distinction between the two. Yet, with their limited liability and limitless lifespans and access to capital and the courts, the Corporate is fast becoming the dominant life form on the planet. It becomes notable, then, when the little guy—the Human—pushes back.

A bill banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could soon be passed by the Buffalo, New York city council. According to BuffaloNews.com, the Common Council last night reaffirmed its opposition to the natural gas drilling process in a 9-0 vote, and expressed their support of the proposed fracking ban. If the Common Council approves the yet-to-be-finalized bill, Majority Leader Richard A. Fontana said Buffalo could help lead a nationwide fight against hydrofracking, according to BuffaloNews.com.

Claims that drilling corporations, shielded by a state law lobbied for by drilling corporations, possess the right to do what they want, when they want and where they want is an assault on people’s rights to protect their communities. Human beings alone should have constitutional rights, not corporations.

Ben Price, project director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund based in Carlisle, told the audience it is time to go on the offense when dealing with public officials. Price said there are three options: do nothing, or attempt to work within the structure of the law and then say, “We tried,” or to become more aggressive on several governmental levels

For communities hoping to protect themselves against the risks of shale gas drilling, a community rights ordinance adopted in Pittsburgh that bans drilling in the city is an effective model, an organizer with the nonprofit that helped draft the ordinance said Tuesday. More than 100 people crowded a meeting room at the Fleetville Fire Hall to listen to Ben Price, projects director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, talk about the ordinance that is now being considered by municipalities in 20 counties.

"The CELDF Ordinance is a completely different approach. The local zoning approach accepts the premise that gas companies have the right to dictate to the residents of a municipality what industrial activity they must accept and tries to minimize the probable damage. The CELDF approach asserts that the right of the citizens of a Municipality to control their destinies is inalienable." -- Harveys Lake resident Neil Turner

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund drew up the "Harveys Lake Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance" that would prohibit water from any source in the borough being used in natural gas drilling, hold neighboring municipalities liable for any harm to water sources and make it "unlawful for any corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas" in the borough. Similar ordinances have been passed by officials in Pittsburgh and in Licking Twp., Clarion County.

This country is in one heck of a mess, with huge corporations more and more in total control, at every level of our society. And yet here’s a response to this corporate crisis which really is making a difference – in 120 towns and one big city, so far! The people of these communities are responding to corporate intrusions in a much more potent way than simply begging our elected officials to make the corporations cause a little less harm. They are taking their power back, as citizens. And it’s working! They are a role model to us all. We can help to spread this movement across our nation. Please get involved!

Township trustees are considering an ordinance that would ban oil and natural gas drilling. The ordinance was introduced Tuesday night, then tabled. Trustees don’t plan to take any action until after community information meetings planned for late January.

"Drilling into the Marcellus Shale and its effect on our environment is something that we, as a community, need to start talking with each other about," said group member Ellen Mavrich. "The risk involved for our residents must be understood and all options must be carefully considered. Ultimately, the citizens of Peters Township should decide what happens in Peters Township."

A citizen's group wants Murrysville leaders to consider placing a ban on Marcellus shale natural gas drilling. The Murrysville Marcellus Community Group, a 35-member group of residents concerned about potential Marcellus shale drilling in the municipality, met Monday with Doug Shields, a Pittsburgh councilman, and...Ben Price. ...Price...with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said communities have the right to ban Marcellus shale drilling. He said the rights of people supersede regulations and laws that govern land use. His group believes that drilling can intrude on the rights of neighbors and members of the community near where drilling occurs.

On Nov. 16, Pittsburgh's City Council voted 9-0 to adopt the ordinance, which was drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and bars all energy companies from drilling within the city limits, citing threats to the "health, safety and welfare" of the city's residents. The ordinance has since become law. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl allowed the measure to become law without his signature. In conjunction with the adoption of the ordinance, six of Pittsburgh's nine council members sent a letter and a copy of the ordinance to the leaders of every municipality in Pennsylvania urging them to adopt similar local laws.

A “Fracking and Your Rights” program will be at 7 p.m. Jan. 4, at the Fleetville Fire Hall on Route 407 in Fleetville. The Baylor’s Lake Association, in partnership with the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, ( www.gdacoalition.org), will host an informational meeting for all interested residents of Benton Township and other communities. Speakers will include Dr. Thomas Jiunta, GDAC co-founder; and Ben Price, projects director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund ( www.celdf.org).

...In other business, council voted to have consultant Jack Varaly look into ways the borough can be protected against natural gas drilling through zoning ordinance amendments, then to hold a public meeting in late February or early March to discuss his findings. "That's not at all what I asked for," resident Neil Turner said after the vote. "You'll see a bunch of us here in February." Turner had asked council to advertise for a public meeting specifically to consider adopting the "Harveys Lake Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance" drawn up by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Since I last wrote about Frack Action Buffalo a number of important things have taken place. In that time the signatures that were collected sent the strong message to the Buffalo City Council that the people of Buffalo want a strong resolution to ban natural gas drilling the the City of Buffalo. They do not want it watered down and the core meaning altered. The ordinance has passed a critical vote in being moved to the City of Buffalo Law Department before going back to the City Council for a final vote.

Citing concerns about the safety of water sources, three Mainline communities are looking at the possibility of banning drilling for natural gas or finding ways to significantly limit that activity. While no official meetings on the matter have been held, officials are talking among themselves about an ordinance passed in October by Pittsburgh City Council that bans drilling into the Marcellus Shale bed. Cresson and Washington townships and Cresson Borough are tossing the issue around, officials confirmed Friday.

About eight members of the public attended the meeting, along with Plain Township Trustee Louis Giavasis. Most if not all of those observing the meeting are concerned about fracking, said Councilwoman Mary Cirelli, D-at large, a commission member.Cirelli has written a letter to fellow council members requesting the body authorize the Law Department to research and prepare legislation “that bans the commercial extraction of natural gas within the city, and/or near our aquifer if possible, under our home rule and police powers.”

In Stow, Beck Energy of Ravenna proposed drilling on church property in a residential neighborhood. The permit was denied, but not because of action by the local government, which strongly opposed the project. Six years ago, the legislature unwisely gave sole regulatory authority over oil and gas drilling to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

CRESSON - A grassroots effort outlining Marcellus Shale dangers and a Pittsburgh drilling ban have caught the attention of two Mainline communities. A week after a workshop on the matter, Cresson Borough and Washington Township are separately considering the possibility of their own, similar ordinances. Officials from both municipalities said the idea may not ever leave their drawing boards, but concerns about the potential impact on local water sources are reason to review it regardless.

Two central Pennsylvania communities are considering natural gas drilling bans based on an ordinance passed last month in Pittsburgh. Officials in Cresson and Washington Township, two Cambria County communities more than 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, say local ordinances may be the only way to control drilling in their towns.

Plain Township, Ohio is considering adoption of a local measure modeled on the Pittsburgh / Buffalo gas drilling ordinance. Discussion of the measure by Township Trustee Lou Giavasis on a radio program last week caused state Senator Kirk Schuring to back out of last night's meeting, pull the state regulatory agency reps, industry reps, and two State Representatives with him, announce that the Township meeting was canceled, and schedule a separate simultaneous meeting nearby. The heat of public criticism grew so great that Sen Shuring canceled his attempt to hijack the Township meeting, which proceeded as scheduled - without the drilling advocates.

Need to elevate nature's rights over corporate rights. Highlights CELDF's work with Pittsburgh and other communities, and the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth under discussion in Cancun.

Earlier this month, CELDF issued an “Open Letter to Communities Working to Stop Fracking,” bringing attention to Pittsburgh, PA – which has set a great example for other cities, towns, and communities to follow to take back their power. Pittsburg’s recent ban against hydrofracking within their city limits really sends a message. Local officials...have moved to protect the people from the significant threats posed to their life and health by natural gas drilling companies engaged in hydrofracking.

Welcome to the Energy and Capital Weekend Edition — our insights from the week in investing and links to our most-read Energy and Capital and sister publications. “It's the beginning of the end for shale gas,” they say. Unfortunately, most of them don't have much of a clue about what's going on. What they're referring to is news that came out of Pittsburgh this week. On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh City Council adopted a new ordinance banning natural gas drilling in the city. This marks the first time an ordinance has targeted the surging activity in the Marcellus Shale pay.

Although the Pittsburgh ordinance only affects plans to drill inside the city limits, its passage received national news coverage given Pennsylvania’s long history of oil and coal exploitation. It also is a landmark for CELDF’s national and international efforts to put the rights of citizens and the environment ahead of corporate interests in exploiting natural resources. CELDF is based in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and maintains in the Saranac Building in Spokane, where the organization has worked in support of grassroots-based structural reforms to decision-making affecting communities and the environment.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, of Summit Hill, prepared the Harveys Lake Community Water Rights and Local Self Government Ordinance and had copies available for everyone. The proposal states “water is essential for the life, prosperity and sustainability and health of the lake community and damage to the natural water sources imposes a great tangible loss to the people, natural communities and ecosystem of Harveys Lake.” It prohibits any corporation to extract natural gas within the borough but also states it is unlawful to use water from any source within the borough for extraction of natural gas. It also holds corporations involved in neighboring municipalities responsible for pollution caused to water sources and the environment within the borough. In a standing room crowd, many residents calmly expressed their desire to have council consider this proposal and asked for a public meeting to discuss it.

The Pittsburgh Council ban was crafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, whose spokesperson Ben Price reported hearing from three other municipalities interested in their own bans within hours of the vote. Price called the proposed ban “a local bill of rights,” noting that city residents should have rights to exclude drilling in their neighborhoods, no matter what rights the state gives to corporations. The Marcellus Shale Coalition representing the gas industry accused Shields of wanting to deny private property owners their “fundamental rights.” The industry is suggesting a legal challenge to the Pittsburgh ban. Council members indicated they are up for a legal fight. “I’d love to have some discovery here,” said Councilperson Bruce Kraus. “I am not about to gamble with some of the most basic human rights people possess — clean air and clean water, safe environments in which to live and raise families.”

Jiunta was excited to hear of the adoption of Pittsburgh’s ordinance, despite the rejection of his own. “It shows that people are willing to take steps necessary to protect their environment, even if the Oil and Gas Act tells them not to,” Jiunta said. Jiunta admitted the ordinance he proposed, drafted by the nonprofit Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, may violate the state Oil and Gas Act, but he also called the act an unjust law that “needs to be modified.” “My argument was, if the people didn’t oppose an unjust law in the past, we would still have slavery today, too,” Jiunta said. “If people don’t oppose this unjust law, then were all going to end up with polluted aquifers.”

If drilling bans become more popular in other major natural gas cities, a price spike for natural gas could be in the offing. Many of the long-only natural gas ETFs are above their long-term trend lines, so consider them if you believe that continued good performance is likely.

Frack no! In Pittsburgh this week, leaders banned hydrofracking within the city...Environmentalists in other municipalities, in state government, and in Congress would do well to follow Pittsburgh's lead.

A week after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) subpoenaed Halliburton to find out what goes into the chemicals it uses for fracking, the city of Pittsburgh has taken another shot at the natural gas industry. The New York Times is reporting that Pittsburgh’s city council voted unanimously this week to ban all natural gas drilling within the city’s boundaries. This news makes Pittsburgh the first city in Pennsylvania to outright ban fracking.

Provisions in the ordinance eliminate corporate "personhood" rights within the city for corporations seeking to drill, and remove the ability of corporations to wield the Commerce and Contracts Clauses of the U.S. Constitution to override community decision-making. In addition, with adoption of the ordinance, Pittsburgh became the first city in the U.S. to recognize legally binding rights of nature. By recognizing the rights of nature, Pittsburgh is effectively protecting ecosystems and natural communities within the city from efforts by corporations to drill there--and by other levels of government to authorize that drilling. Residents of Pittsburgh are empowered by the ordinance to enforce those rights on behalf of threatened ecosystems.

In July, we wrote that Council sought the advice of its solicitor to determine if a ban would be legal, which industry representatives doubted. But the Marcellus Shale Coalition said yesterday that it won’t challenge the ban in court, and Chesapeake Energy, which has been doing the city leasing through its agent Dale Property Services, has been emphatic about its intentions not to drill in the city.

On Monday, Tom Jiunta, of the grassroots group Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, requested for the second time that the Lehman Township supervisors consider a similar ordinance, drafted by the same authors as Pittsburgh’s, banning hydraulic fracturing within the township. The Lehman supervisors refused to advertise and debate the ordinance, stating it violated the state municipal planning code and would be challenged in the courts if adopted. Jiunta was excited to hear of the adoption of Pittsburgh’s ordinance, despite the rejection of his own.

Pittsburgh became the first city in gas-rich Pennsylvania to ban natural gas drilling after City Council members unanimously approved the measure Tuesday.

As second-class citizens, our rights made secondary to the privileges of corporations, we look for solutions to the ignoble status we’ve been relegated to. Our work plays out within a very small box of “allowable activism” bounded on all sides by rights-frameworks which protect a relatively small number of corporate decisionmakers. What does this have to do with fracking in the Marcellus shale formation? Everything. The rationale behind the Pittsburgh ordinance is a simple one. If we respect and comply with those frameworks of law – playing within the sandbox that has been constructed for us - we’ll get drilled. It’s as straightforward as simple arithmetic.

The supervisors said Monday they won't host a meeting to talk about the natural gas drilling-related ordinance residents proposed but the board declined to consider it. But if the drilling critics and the pro-gas proponents get together for a discussion about how to protect the township's water, land and residents, all three supervisors said they would attend. "I think that this is a good idea and I intend to pursue this," said Dr. Thomas Jiunta, Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition co-founder and Lehman Township resident, after the meeting. "We need to come together as neighbors and come to a consensus on how to protect our water supplies, to the best of our abilities, whether you have leased or not." Jiunta was one of several residents who have been asking the supervisors to at least consider the "Lehman Township Community Water Rights and Self-Government Ordinance" drawn up by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

"This is an important statement being made today, and it's not just the city of Pittsburgh," he said. "People are looking to this council and I think they are seeing something extraordinary here in that regard."

A historic new ordinance bans natural gas drilling while elevating community decision making and the rights of nature over the "rights" associated with corporate personhood.

The Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday will consider adopting an ordinance that would ban natural gas drilling within the city limits, a move that has irritated the Marcellus Shale Coalition. The city council's vote could prompt organizations like the MSC to hold conferences in the suburbs or more friendly locations, MSC President Kathryn Klaber said Monday in a statement. "They can tell you that their corporate rights supersede those of people," Shields said. "They have not yet responded to the clear health risks or the adverse impacts to our environment, not their environment."

This is a night for all the community members opposed to this type of drilling to come together to have fun, and to contribute to an extremely important cause. It is also to gather support for Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, an ordinance currently in the works to protect Buffalo’s citizens.

If Pittsburgh City Council doesn't want Marcellus shale gas companies drilling in the city, industry officials said they could take their non-drilling business elsewhere. City Council plans to decide Tuesday whether to ban the drilling. The industry could move meetings such as recent conferences to the suburbs or friendlier towns, said Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group based at Southpointe in Washington County.

The Brooke County Commission was asked Tuesday to consider laws regulating natural gas drilling or the disposal of its byproducts. The commission heard from Bob Cline, a Cross Creek resident who noted communities in Pennsylvania have adopted or are in the process of adopting ordinances banning or regulating natural gas drilling. Officials in Licking Township, Pa., in October adopted an ordinance banning the dumping of "frack" water, brine and other materials resulting from natural gas drilling. And Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to an ordinance that would ban natural gas drilling in the city.

The preliminary vote, to be followed by a final vote Tuesday, was welcomed by Marcellus Shale opponents. "It's like a beacon," Lawrenceville resident Gloria Forouzan said, contending that other communities will follow Pittsburgh's lead. "I think it's building a lot of momentum." Ben Price, who helped craft Mr. Shields' legislation as projects director for the Franklin County-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said that within hours of the vote he'd spoken with gas opponents in three other municipalities interested in enacting their own bans. "We've got quite a number of municipalities in the state that are exploring this, looking at it. I think with Pittsburgh taking the lead like this, it will inspire others," Mr. Price said.

A court battle awaits after the Pittsburgh City Council preliminarily voted Tuesday to ban Marcellus Shale gas drilling inside city limits. "We can not let this industry run unabated throughout our cities, towns and natural environment," City Councilman Doug Shields said. Shields' bill goes against court rulings that say that the state has authority over drilling. The council believes that its cause is worth taking that fight further. "We need to build a foundation, as Councilman Shields said, that will protect us here in Pittsburgh and the commonwealth as a whole," City Councilman Patrick Dowd said.

Pittsburgh City Council has given preliminary approval to a ban on future Marcellus Shale gas well drilling. The bill, which was first introduced in August has gone through several rounds of debate at the council table and has been the subject of more than one public input session. Bill Sponsor Doug Shields says over the weeks it has become clearer to him that the ban is needed if the city is to protect its water supply, property values and quality of life. Most council members and legal experts believe the bill runs afoul of state law but Shields says it is far too important of an issue for him to worry about a legal challenge.

In an 8-0 vote, Pittsburgh City Council gave preliminary approval today to a bill that would ban natural gas drilling in the city. The legislation was crafted in response to the ever increasing efforts of gas drilling companies to lease land for Marcellus Shale drilling.

In addition to banning corporate disposal of frack wastewater, Licking Township’s ordinance asserts the right to local self-government and the community’s right to a healthy environment and to clean water. In adopting the ordinance, Licking joins more than a dozen other communities in legally recognizing the rights of nature and subordinating corporate constitutional rights to the rights of human and natural communities.

With gas drilling inching closer to the borough, resident Michelle Boice pushed council members to consider adopting an anti-fracking ordinance Tuesday night. Fracking is a procedure gas companies use involving chemicals and a sand mixture to fracture the Marcellus Shale to release the gas. Boice said Licking Township in Clarion County approved an anti-fracking ordinance last week. She suggested council arrange a meeting with Shireen Parsons of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, an organization that provided Licking Township with its ordinance.

Munhall council is voicing its opposition to Marcellus shale drilling in the borough. On Wednesday night, council unanimously voted to send a letter to the state legislature, Gov. Ed Rendell and Allegheny County Council in opposition to any drilling in Munhall involving fracking and destruction of the community. Ben Price, projects director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, told council it should adopt a resolution to ban Marcellus shale gas drilling in the borough. "We partner with municipalities and local community groups on a whole host of issues," Price said. "The one that is paramount right now throughout Pennsylvania is Marcellus shale drilling."

Council might consider an ordinance that would essentially ban natural gas drilling in the borough. Resident Michell'e Boice asked council Tuesday to move forward with having the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund draw up an ordinance similar to one that just passed in Clarion County - but was rejected by Harveys Lake's neighbor in Luzerne County. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Web site reports Licking Township, Clarion County, supervisors recently adopted its ordinance, which would make it "unlawful for any corporation, or any director, officer, owner, or manager of a corporation to use a corporation, to deposit waste water, 'produced' water, 'frack' water, brine or other materials, chemicals or by-products of natural gas extraction, into the land, air or waters within Licking Township."

A Pittsburgh City Council that's wrestling with the prospect of Marcellus Shale gas drilling heard warnings Monday about its potential impact but reached no consensus on how to restrict it. "We must find a way to produce energy in this country in a way that is not conducted like war, with assumed and accepted collateral damage," urged Peggy Utesch, a Colorado community activist who said life in an area called Silt Mesa changed dramatically when the shale gas industry got there, especially after an underground leak affected wells, crops and cattle. "Keep Pittsburgh as America's most livable city," she said.