Grant Township Archives

Jan 4, 2021

$Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water$

Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water

Coverage on the ongoing Rights of Nature efforts in Grant Township – see the full original article by the Indiana Gazette.

Dec 15, 2020

BREAKING: Gas Company Files Federal Lawsuit To Overturn Small Pennsylvania Township’s Rights of Nature Law…Again

Gas company PGE sues Grant Township over democratically enacted law. The PA Department of Environmental Protection also sued Grant in 2017, making this filing the third lawsuit against the Township (pop. 700) for trying to protect its drinking water.

Sep 24, 2020

Press Release: Grant Township Moves to Dismiss PA DEP Lawsuit

Despite recognizing the Grant Townships local law to ban injection wells the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection continues to sue the township. CELDF files motion to dismiss on behalf of the community.

Read More | Press Releases, Press Releases & Blogs

Aug 27, 2020

COMING SOON: World Premiere of ‘Invisible Hand’

From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes the world’s first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement. Attend the virtual world premiere followed by a panel discussion around the Rights of Nature Movement.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jul 8, 2020

Staying Home with Josh Fox: Preemption and Property Rights

Ben Price discusses Rights of Nature and how the concepts of preemption, claimed corporate rights, and property rights challenge local democracy and ecosystem rights.

Jun 29, 2020

Thom Hartmann Program: State Law Benefits Corporations Against You – You Lose

Chad Nicholson joins Thom Hartmann to discuss how the 1% are effectively, suing the 99% for their own benefit, citing the findings of our June 2020 Report.

Read More | Corporate 'Rights', News from the Grassroots

Jun 11, 2020

Webinar: Expanding Rights-Based Organizing During a Crisis

A live Q&A with CELDF organizers on Expanding Rights-Based Organizing During a Crisis.

A Closer Look: Exploring the Rights of Nature on June 3

A Live Q&A Session with CELDF organizers taking a Closer Look at the Rights of Nature.

Podcast Interview: Grant Township Update on Political Misfits

Pennsylvania organizer, Chad Nicholson, discusses the Rights of Nature victory in Grant Township despite the ongoing rollback of environmental protections across the country.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Resource Links

Apr 9, 2020

Rights of Nature Interview on KB00 Radio!

Pacific Northwest organizer, Kai Huschke, details how COVID-19 has opens timely conversation about the Rights of Nature as a legal framework for protecting Nature.

Apr 6, 2020

People Power in a Time of Pandemic

In this interview, Kai speaks on the current state of community rights, gives an explanation of the events taking place in Grant Township, and talks about how we must take this time during Covid-19 to progress forward in the movement.

Apr 2, 2020

Rolling Stone: Nature Scores a Big Win Against Fracking in a Small Pennsylvania Town

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit for a toxic frack waste injection well in Grant Township. The DEP cited the Township’s Home Rule Charter, which includes a “Community Bill of Rights,” in their decision. Through the Charter that residents adopted in 2015, they banned injections wells as a violation of the rights of the community and the ecosystems that sustain them. CELDF assisted in drafting and defending the law.

Mar 25, 2020

Breaking: Rights of Nature Law Forces Pennsylvania to Revoke Industry Permit

PRESS RELEASE: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection enforces local Rights of Nature law. Allows Grant Township to protect vital waterways in revoking permit for dangerous frack waste injection well.

The Indiana Gazette: Court sides with Grant Township on injection well

As the Pennsylvania DEP attempts to block Grant Township’s defense of their ban on fracking injection wells, the court rules that the case can move forward. Grant argues they have the right to local governing authority to protect against corporate harm.

Mar 4, 2020

Press Release: Grant Township Injection Well Ban Stands, Court Denies ‘Collateral Attack’ from DEP

A decision fro a judge in Grant Township argues that local governing authority is necessary to protect the community’s constitutional rights in the face of harmful state oil and gas policies.

Sierra: Nevertheless, they persisted

The epic story of Grant Township, Pennsylvania, fighting for their community’s water in the face of PGE’s proposed fracking wastewater injection well.

Nov 11, 2019

Media Statement: Settlement Announced with Oil and Gas Industry Seeking Monetary Award: Ban Against Injection Wells Continues

Following settlement of one of the lawsuits against Grant Township, PA, for daring to protect its water from a frack wastewater injection well, the township continues to stand up to the oil and gas industry.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 5, 2019

The Indiana Gazette: Hellbenders have their day in court

Grant Township, Pennsylvania, argued for their environmental rights in court as they defend themselves against their own Department of Protection to stop a fracking injection well.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jun 7, 2019

The Indiana Gazette: Grant Township took proper stance

Grant Township, PA, resident speaks out on criticism aimed at Township’s efforts to protect the community from a toxic fracking wastewater injection well.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Apr 2, 2019

Media Release: Not an April Fools Joke in Grant Township

GRANT TOWNSHIP, INDIANA COUNTY, PA: On April 1, federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter issued an order that was not a joke: Grant Township (pop. 741), Baxter declared, owes Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) over $100,000 in attorney’s fees and costs.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

May 21, 2018

Press Release: PGE Continues Efforts to Bankrupt Grant Township

PGE continues to harass Grant Township, a small community in rural Pennsylvania, by attempting to force the Township to pay attorney’s fees. Grant residents are protecting their water by fighting PGE’s proposed fracking wastewater injection well.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Feb 5, 2018

Think Progress: The new legal threat to environmental attorneys: Sanctions from judges and attorneys general

From ThinkProgress on the efforts of the oil and gas industry to stop Community Rights and Rights of Nature, the courageous communities who refuse to fold, and the growing momentum of this new legal paradigm.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 22, 2018

Non-Profit Quarterly: Nonprofit Legal Firm Ordered to Pay for its Defense of Anti-Fracking City Ordinance

Sanctioning public interest attorneys for defending Grant Township, PA’s, ban on fracking wastewater injection wells is the next step in efforts to stop communities from refusing harmful corporate projects.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 17, 2018

Desmog: Court Orders Nonprofit Law Firm to Pay $52,000 to Oil and Gas Company for Defending Local Fracking Waste Ban

Community Rights is growing, and this is the corporate state’s punitive response.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 10, 2018

Rolling Stone: The Rights of Nature Movement Goes on Trial

The people of Grant Township, PA, are fiercely defending their right to clean air and water. A federal judge sanctions two attorneys for standing with Grant and fighting for their rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 5, 2018

Press Release: Federal Court Sanctions Lawyers for Defending Community’s Right to Say “No” to Frack Wastewater Injection Wells

The corporate state’s judiciary punishes attorneys defending Grant Township, PA, residents against the oil and gas industry by imposing sanctions.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 13, 2017

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: ‘No is no is no’: A tiny township’s fight against oil and gas waste disposal

While Grant Township, PA, residents fight to protect themselves from PGE’s frack wastewater injection well, the oil and gas industry admits it wants to bankrupt CELDF.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jul 20, 2017

NexusMedia: Meet the Rural Pennsylvania Town at the Forefront of Environmental Law

Grant Township, PA, digs in deep to fight a frack wastewater injection well, leveraging rights to challenge a legal system stacked against them.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jul 7, 2017

Press Release: Oil & Gas Corp. Sues Community, Goes After Lawyers

PGE corporation is attempting to force fracking wastewater into Grant Twp, PA. Now they seek sanctions against CELDF attorneys working on behalf of the community.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

May 22, 2017

Rolling Stone: How a Small Town Is Standing Up to Fracking

Rolling Stone Magazine covers the story of Grant Township, PA, where the residents are working with CELDF to protect themselves from PGE’s fracking injection well. In the process, together, we’re pioneering a new legal framework for rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Apr 24, 2017

GoErie.com LTE: PA DEP suing municipalities during its ‘justice’ tour

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection holds “listening hearings” for feedback from communities, while it sues two townships fighting the oil and gas industry.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Apr 17, 2017

The Huffington Post: They Told A Fracking Company To Go Away. 3 Years Later, They’re Still in Court.

The story of one small community’s fierce fight against the oil and gas industry, using community rights with CELDF and spearheading a movement.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Apr 10, 2017

Mint Press News: PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Sues Towns Over Fracking Ban

Residents of Grant and Highland Townships, PA, continue the fight to protect themselves from a frack wastewater injection well. Joining the fight against them: the PA DEP, which has sued the townships for protecting themselves.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Apr 10, 2017

The Indiana Gazette: Grant Twp, PA, residents plan local action to protect their water from injection well

Community rights advocates in Grant Township, PA, continue their stand to protect their water from a frack wastewater injection well.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Apr 4, 2017

Communities take action when their government fails them: Community Rights in PA/OH

Environmental activists, leaders, and residents are touring Pennsylvania and Ohio, sharing what they are doing in the face of the corporate state attempting to force fossil fuel harms in their communities.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 31, 2017

In These Times: Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection Sues Towns for Trying to Protect Their Environment

It doesn’t get any clearer than this: our own environmental regulatory agencies suing communities who dare to protect the environment by banning fracking activities. Is there any question that we live in a corporate state?

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 30, 2017

$PennLive: Outrage and localism after state sues towns that banned frack water wells$

PennLive: Outrage and localism after state sues towns that banned frack water wells

Residents of Grant and Highland Townships, PA, are outraged by the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s lawsuits against them for rights-based laws banning frack waste injections wells.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 29, 2017

PR: The Corporate State of Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sues Townships with Community Rights Home Rule Charters to force in fracking injection wells.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Mar 28, 2017

$PA Dept of Environmental Protection sues its own communities over fracking injection wells$

PA Dept of Environmental Protection sues its own communities over fracking injection wells

A state agency charged with protecting the health and safety of communities and the natural environment sues Grant and Highland Townships in Pennsylvania, attempting to force in frack wastewater injection wells against the will of the people.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 22, 2017

$Indiana Gazette LTE: Learning from Grant Twp, PA, on protecting our communities from fracking$

Indiana Gazette LTE: Learning from Grant Twp, PA, on protecting our communities from fracking

When our government fails to protect us from fracking activities, we must do so ourselves.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 21, 2017

Counterpunch: Get The Frack Out of Pennsylvania

Fiction mirrors reality, and author Lee Ballinger draws the parallels between a novel set in Pennsylvania describing the ravages of fracking, and the reality in Grant Township, where residents are fighting back to protect themselves and assert their rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 29, 2016

Yes! Magazine: As a Trump Administration Fast Approaches, Cities and Towns Gear Up for Political Resistance

Community Bills of Rights are a tool to protect rights at the local level, such as Barnstead, NH’s prohibition on religious identification requirements, and Grant Township, PA’s, ban fracking activities to protect clean air and water.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 5, 2016

CELDF Statement: When Protecting Our Communities Becomes Criminal Activity

Oil and gas industry threatens criminal lawsuits against local elected officials taking a stand to protect their communities’ health, safety, and welfare. In Grant Township, PA, Township Supervisors are undeterred, vowing to continue their fight to protect their water from frack waste.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 4, 2016

Common Dreams: Fracking Industry’s New Plan? Prosecute Those Who Push Drilling Bans

As communities seek to protect themselves from toxic drilling, Pennsylvania industry group mulls statute to deter such ordinances.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 3, 2016

Allied News: Shale waste insights

Residents in Wilmington, PA, gathered to hear a panel discussion on fracking threats. Panelists included Grant Township Supervisor Stacy Long, describing tactics used by the gas industry to intimidate residents into accepting an injection well. Residents refuse to submit and are fighting back.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Sep 13, 2016

Energy Wire: ‘Rights of nature’ heads back to federal court

Highland Township, PA, residents work with CELDF to push for the recognition of the Rights of Nature in the 3rd Circuit Court.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Sep 6, 2016

The Baffler: Who Speaks for the Trees?

Recognizing Rights of Nature is part of the growing discourse on the rights of ecosystems to exist and thrive, based on their own intrinsic value. Under a legal system where property rules, it is a game changer, used by communities like Grant Township, PA, to protect themselves from corporate harms.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Aug 11, 2016

Press Release: Grant Township Wins Key Motions in Fight for Civil and Environmental Rights

Grant Township, PA, residents and the Little Mahoning Watershed secure wins in motions filed recently by CELDF. Residents are fighting for their rights against PGE as the company tries to force a frack wastewater injection well in the Township.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Aug 8, 2016

Law and Disorder Radio: Civil Disobedience Ordinance and Home Rule In Grant Township, PA

CELDF’s Chad Nicholson and Grant Township resident Stacy Long are interviewed on Law and Disorder radio. Grant residents adopted an ordinance legalizing civil disobedience to protect themselves from an injection well.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

May 23, 2016

The World: Movement growing to defend against corporate interests

State governments block communities’ efforts to stop harmful activities. Corporations sue the communities and are backed by the judiciary. What’s left? Says blogger Mary Geddry: people insisting on their right to local community self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Sneak Peek! -- End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water

BREAKING: Gas Company Files Federal Lawsuit To Overturn Small Pennsylvania Township’s Rights of Nature Law…Again

Press Release: Grant Township Moves to Dismiss PA DEP Lawsuit

COMING SOON: World Premiere of ‘Invisible Hand’

Staying Home with Josh Fox: Preemption and Property Rights

Thom Hartmann Program: State Law Benefits Corporations Against You – You Lose

Webinar: Expanding Rights-Based Organizing During a Crisis

A Closer Look: Exploring the Rights of Nature on June 3

Podcast Interview: Grant Township Update on Political Misfits

Rights of Nature Interview on KB00 Radio!

People Power in a Time of Pandemic

Rolling Stone: Nature Scores a Big Win Against Fracking in a Small Pennsylvania Town

Breaking: Rights of Nature Law Forces Pennsylvania to Revoke Industry Permit

The Indiana Gazette: Court sides with Grant Township on injection well

Press Release: Grant Township Injection Well Ban Stands, Court Denies ‘Collateral Attack’ from DEP

Sierra: Nevertheless, they persisted

Media Statement: Settlement Announced with Oil and Gas Industry Seeking Monetary Award: Ban Against Injection Wells Continues

The Indiana Gazette: Hellbenders have their day in court

The Indiana Gazette: Grant Township took proper stance

Media Release: Not an April Fools Joke in Grant Township

Press Release: PGE Continues Efforts to Bankrupt Grant Township

Think Progress: The new legal threat to environmental attorneys: Sanctions from judges and attorneys general

Non-Profit Quarterly: Nonprofit Legal Firm Ordered to Pay for its Defense of Anti-Fracking City Ordinance

Desmog: Court Orders Nonprofit Law Firm to Pay $52,000 to Oil and Gas Company for Defending Local Fracking Waste Ban

Rolling Stone: The Rights of Nature Movement Goes on Trial

Press Release: Federal Court Sanctions Lawyers for Defending Community’s Right to Say “No” to Frack Wastewater Injection Wells

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: ‘No is no is no’: A tiny township’s fight against oil and gas waste disposal

NexusMedia: Meet the Rural Pennsylvania Town at the Forefront of Environmental Law

Press Release: Oil & Gas Corp. Sues Community, Goes After Lawyers

Rolling Stone: How a Small Town Is Standing Up to Fracking

GoErie.com LTE: PA DEP suing municipalities during its ‘justice’ tour

The Huffington Post: They Told A Fracking Company To Go Away. 3 Years Later, They’re Still in Court.

Mint Press News: PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Sues Towns Over Fracking Ban

The Indiana Gazette: Grant Twp, PA, residents plan local action to protect their water from injection well

Communities take action when their government fails them: Community Rights in PA/OH

In These Times: Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection Sues Towns for Trying to Protect Their Environment

PennLive: Outrage and localism after state sues towns that banned frack water wells

PR: The Corporate State of Pennsylvania

PA Dept of Environmental Protection sues its own communities over fracking injection wells

Indiana Gazette LTE: Learning from Grant Twp, PA, on protecting our communities from fracking

Counterpunch: Get The Frack Out of Pennsylvania

Yes! Magazine: As a Trump Administration Fast Approaches, Cities and Towns Gear Up for Political Resistance

CELDF Statement: When Protecting Our Communities Becomes Criminal Activity

Common Dreams: Fracking Industry’s New Plan? Prosecute Those Who Push Drilling Bans

Allied News: Shale waste insights

Energy Wire: ‘Rights of nature’ heads back to federal court

The Baffler: Who Speaks for the Trees?

Press Release: Grant Township Wins Key Motions in Fight for Civil and Environmental Rights

Law and Disorder Radio: Civil Disobedience Ordinance and Home Rule In Grant Township, PA

The World: Movement growing to defend against corporate interests

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