Important Updates
A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the…
Issues, News, Resources, Rights of Nature
Human and ecosystem viability come when we figure out how to orient…
News, Rights of Nature
Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans fighting corporate and state…
Publications
Jul 10, 2017
Immense Possibilities interviews CELDF’s Thomas Linzey and Coos County, OR, community rights activist Mary Geddry.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsJul 9, 2017
Recognizing the rights of nature is a strategy leveraged by communities in partnership with CELDF across the U.S. to protect themselves from fracking harms. The strategy crosses traditional conservative/liberal demarcations.
Read More | News from the Grassroots, Success StoryJul 7, 2017
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 & BlogsJun 19, 2017
Rights of nature has shifted from theory to practice over the last decade, being realized in legal doctrines in U.S. communities and in countries around the world.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryMay 22, 2017
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 GrassrootsMay 5, 2017
Seneca Resources attempts to force a frack wastewater injection well in Highland Township, PA, against the will of the people. Residents request support from Elk County Commissioners in their fight.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 27, 2017
We watch as Highland residents fight to protect their water, the oil and gas industry attack, and the people’s own state government and PA Department of Environmental Protection back industry.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 24, 2017
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 GrassrootsApr 17, 2017
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 GrassrootsApr 15, 2017
Highland Township, PA’s, Water Authority files to intervene in a federal lawsuit to protect the community’s right to water. Township Supervisors are attempting to give away that right and allow a frack wastewater injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 10, 2017
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 GrassrootsApr 10, 2017
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 GrassrootsApr 4, 2017
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 GrassrootsMar 31, 2017
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 GrassrootsMar 30, 2017
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 GrassrootsMar 29, 2017
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 & BlogsMar 28, 2017
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 GrassrootsMar 23, 2017
Ohio and Pennsylvania residents are inundated with environmental harms, and have had enough. Join the Communities Rising tour, featuring voices from the front lines in the wave of direction action against the corporate state. Check it out here.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsFeb 22, 2017
When our government fails to protect us from fracking activities, we must do so ourselves.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsFeb 12, 2017
Lancaster Co, PA, residents move to non-violent civil disobedience to protect their communities from the Atlantic Sunrise LNG pipeline.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 21, 2017
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 GrassrootsJan 14, 2017
While Seneca Resources tries to force a frack wastewater injection well into Highland Twp, PA, a second time, residents and the Crystal Spring Ecosystem fight back, filing for intervenor status in a federal lawsuit.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 13, 2017
Crystal Spring Ecosystem and residents of Highland Township, PA, filed to intervene in a lawsuit today. Parties are fighting to block Seneca Resources’ plans to site a frack wastewater injection well in the Township as a violation of their Home Rule Charter.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 6, 2017
Highland Township Supervisors in Highland, PA, abandon their efforts to illegitimately remove the Water Authority board. Highland residents are fighting to protect themselves from an injection well, while their Supervisors ally with the fracking industry.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 4, 2017
Highland Township, PA, supervisors concede they don’t have the authority to remove the Township’s Water Authority Board after receiving a cease and desist letter. Supervisors have been harassing the Board as the community fights an injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsDec 29, 2016
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 GrassrootsNov 8, 2016
Highland Township, PA, voters step up their fight to protect themselves from a frack wastewater injection well, adopting a rights-based Home Rule Charter banning the well, 55% to 45%.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryNov 7, 2016
As Highland Township, PA, residents prefer to vote on their rights-based Home Rule Charter to protect themselves against a frack wastewater injection well, Seneca Resources funds anti-Charter flyers to sway voters.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 6, 2016
As the predictable self-destruction of this culture of deceit and greed proceeds and accelerates, CELDF’s recommendations for change will become less “far-fetched” and “absurd.” They will at last seem inevitable and unavoidable.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsOct 30, 2016
Simon Davis-Cohen reveals escalating efforts to quash We the People from exercising our right to initiative. From fracking and water protection, to minimum wage and police reform, the corporate state is cracking down.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 19, 2016
Former Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields, featured in We the People 2.0, refuses to fold to the oil and gas industry, standing his ground to protect the City he loves.
Read More | UncategorizedOct 19, 2016
Facing legal and political intimidation tactics aimed at silencing her, Cathy Miorelli refused – and led the way to advance Community Rights in Tamaqua, PA. Miorelli is featured in We the People 2.0.
Read More | UncategorizedOct 13, 2016
An Elk County, PA, judge rules in favor of the Highland County Government Study Commission to intervene in a lawsuit filed by their own Supervisors to keep a Charter measure off the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 5, 2016
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 & BlogsOct 4, 2016
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 GrassrootsOct 3, 2016
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 GrassrootsSep 21, 2016
A U.S. District Magistrate Judge refused to allow community or ecosystem intervention in the Highland Township, PA, case, where communities are fighting to stop a frack wastewater injection well. CELDF files an appeal on their behalf to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 15, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents put the pressure on their supervisors. The local electeds voted yesterday to try to stop the people’s Home Rule charter initiative in the Common Pleas Court. The charter includes a ban on fracking wastewater injection wells.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 13, 2016
Highland Township, PA’s, residents move a step closer to voting on their own Home Rule Charter proposal in November. Their solicitors are trying to block the measure. Residents are fighting a frack waste injection well, using their right to local community self-government.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 13, 2016
The Elk County, PA, Board of Elections is advised to place the people’s proposed Home Rule Charter measure on the November ballot. Residents face a frack wastewater injection well, which would be banned if the Charter is adopted.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 13, 2016
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 GrassrootsSep 9, 2016
After rescinding an ordinance banning frack wastewater injection wells, Highland Township, PA, supervisors and solicitor further betray residents fighting to protect themselves: they attempt to remove the people’s rights-based Home Rule charter from the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 6, 2016
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 GrassrootsAug 30, 2016
The Highland Township, PA, Home Rule Study Commission votes to advance a rights-based charter for the November ballot. The charter includes a frack wastewater injection well ban, similar to a Community Bill of Rights banning injection wells that was rescinded by supervisors.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 19, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents turn to themselves to protect against unwanted fracking wastewater. Township Supervisors rescinded a Community Bill of Rights banning an injection well. Residents now consider home rule to ban the harmful waste.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 16, 2016
Highland Township, PA, supervisors folded to Seneca Resources, rescinding the people’s Community Bill of Rights ordinance protecting them from Seneca’s proposed wastewater injection well. Residents have not. They are continuing their legal fight and looking to Home Rule.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 15, 2016
Highland Township Supervisors overturn their rights-based fracking wastewater injection well ban. They file a consent decree to allow an injection well, and receive approval by a federal judge. Residents vow to fight back and protect their community.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsAug 11, 2016
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 & BlogsAug 8, 2016
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 GrassrootsAug 2, 2016
As fracking sweeps the nation, communities are using local initiatives to protect themselves – while industry spews propaganda and spends huge sums to stop them.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots