[Randolph Twp, Ohio] About 120 residents gathered again at the Randolph Community Center, this time to hear the merits of a “community bill of rights” that would ban “unconventional extraction of shale gas” in Randolph. The forum was sponsored by the grassroots group Preserve Rural Randolph. Newt Engle said he was bothered by the township’s official position, which is that the state, not the township, has the only control over the horizontal drilling process known as “fracking”....The resolution states that it seeks to ban the drilling practice “because that extraction cannot be achieved without violating the rights of residents and communities or endangering their health, safety and welfare.” The resolution, it states, removes “certain legal powers” from drilling companies, “nullifies state laws, permits, and other authorizations” and “imposes liabilities and fines.”

PLYMOUTH — With some area towns to consider petitioned warrant articles re-asserting the rights of municipalities at their upcoming town meetings, a Pennsylvania attorney on Thursday told a capacity gathering at Pease Library that they needn’t accept things as they are. “The only place democracy seems to exist today is around the kitchen table,” said Thomas Linzey of Mercersburg, Penn., who represents the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and was speaking to community activists gathered at the library. Linzey was invited to speak at the library at the invitation of local Northern Pass project opponents who are concerned their efforts may be overridden by corporate interests.

The No Coal! Political Action Committee kicked off a new campaign for a “Bill of Rights,” which would ban “activities related to the transportation of coal.” The committee held an event to showcase their new Bill of Rights on Jan. 26. More than 100 people from the community flocked to the Squalicum Boathouse at Zuanich Point Park, leaving latecomers standing....If passed by city officials, the initiative would become an ordinance, said Terry Garrett, a member of No Coal! The group is also collecting signatures in hopes of putting an initiative on the November ballot. The Bill of Rights “removes legal ‘powers’ and ‘rights’ from those Corporations to ensure that the powers and rights of the community are superior to the ‘powers’ and ‘rights’ claimed by those Corporations.”

Ecuador and Bolivia granted legal rights to the environment within the past few years. But what are those rights and can they really be enforced? "The rights of nature laws recognize the rights of ecosystems and natural communities to exist, to flourish, to regenerate, and to evolve," Mari Margil, associate director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), told Discovery News. CELDF helped Ecuador write the rights of nature into legal reality. "The rights of nature laws move nature from being considered 'property' under the law to being recognized as 'rights bearing' under the law," said Margil. But laws are nothing but ink on paper if not enforced. A court case in Ecuador showed that these Earth friendly laws have claws and aren't just idealistic public relations legislation.

BELLINGHAM - With a musical kickoff from bandZandt singing "No Coal Trains," local activists launched their "Coal-Free Bellingham" campaign for a citizen initiative to outlaw coal trains through a city ordinance....At Thursday's well-scripted event, they argued that the existing regulatory process typically results in granting a corporation the legal right to harm the environment. "What we are launching today is an initiative campaign through which the people of Bellingham will reassert their right to govern themselves," said organizer Rick Dubrow. "Our aim is to bring a new tool to this work, one that addresses the legal framework that allows those harms to be inflicted on us."

CITY HALL — A dual measure before the City Council Tuesday to support legal protections for the environment and end corporate personhood got a split response from elected officials who enthusiastically supported a healthy environment but watered down the call to restrict rights to living beings. Council members unanimously passed a resolution backing a bill of rights for the environment, which would give legal standing to city officials to protect the environment within Santa Monica's borders if passed as a law in the future.

In the near future, Santa Monica residents might find that the city's goals such as those aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption are legally mandated. With overwhelming support from high school clubs, neighborhood and grass-roots organizations, and environmental activists, the City Council voted Tuesday night to look into giving teeth to a voluntary "sustainable-city plan." It approved a resolution declaring that in conjunction with revising its six-year-old sustainability plan, it would draft this year policies that would allow residents and the city to sue to protect local, natural resources threatened by corporations. The resolution is also the first step toward enacting a "Sustainability Bill of Rights," written and approved in June by the Task Force on the Environment.

Santa Monica's City Council voted on Tuesday to recognize the rights of natural communities to exist. The resolution, drafted by the Task Force on the Environment, calls for Santa Monica to “recognize the rights of people, natural communities, and ecosystems to exist, regenerate and flourish,” according to City Staff. Dean Kubani, director of the Office of Sustainability and the Environment, said that the declaration acknowledges “the rights of Santa Monica residents to clean water, clean air” and other aspects of a clean environment. The resolution, which passed unanimously, would be the first step toward establishing legislation in the City that supports the goals it outlines.

BEAVER TOWNSHIP, Ohio - A group of concerned citizens crowded into the Beaver Township Administration building Tuesday night to discuss a grassroots effort against fracking and brine injection wells. North Lima resident Julia Fuhrman Davis organized the meeting to form a core group of people to work with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. In light of potential health and environmental risks, the group plans to come up with a resolution and a petition to prohibit fracking and brine injection wells.

Santa Monica might jump aboard the anti-corporate personhood bandwagon Tuesday night....It will weigh moving forward on whether to adopt a "Sustainability Bill of Rights" for Santa Monica....The first local law recognizing the rights of nature was adopted in 2006 in Tamaqua Borough, PN [sic]. In December 2010, Pittsburgh became the first major city in the United States to adopt a community bill of rights that bans corporations from drilling natural gas within its city limits, putting the rights of people, the community, and nature over corporations.

Why isn't activism working? It's not for lack of trying, says self-described recovering environmental attorney Thomas Linzey. The environmental community has created a slew of environmental laws and launched an alphabet soup of environmental regulatory agencies, but what do they really do? Linzey says they merely regulate the level of harm and amount of poisons that can be legally injected into our water, soil and air; they're not designed to stop it. In the new book, "Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community," Thomas Linzey and Anneke Campbell, an environmental justice documentary filmmaker, argue that it's time to stop begging the government and corporations to cause less harm. It's time to replace corporate minority decision-making with community self-government.

The movement to overturn the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling and confront the doctrine of “corporate personhood” stands at a perilous crossroads. Across the country, two distinct strategies are converging on Congress....The first would address campaign finance setbacks....The second would go further and seek to revoke the status of corporations as persons under the Constitution...But...Ben Price, project director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) [said] “[The movement to overturn Citizens United] won’t bring the outcomes that are needed.”

Which president told Congress: “I recommend a law prohibiting all corporations from contributing to the campaign expenses of any party…let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly?” If you recognize this Presidential quote, it probably means you’re a history buff (or you watch too much Jeopardy). The correct answer: Who was Theodore Roosevelt? While the speech has become a notable quotable, it’s often forgotten that it followed public outrage surrounding Roosevelt’s acceptance of huge corporate contributions that locked-in his election in 1904.

CELDF comment: Eyes are on Harrisburg as pro-drilling legislation is debated. Conservation groups and others opposing the legislation focus on how stringent the regulations for drilling should be, lamenting the devastation that will be forthcoming and trying to make it a little less. No one is talking about the rights of communities and local officials to BAN drilling, and that any legislation by Harrisburg to strip that right is a usurpation of communities’ rights to protect their own health, safety, and welfare--for themselves, their children, and to protect the rights of nature. Are communities going to make a stand for their right to decide what happens, where they live? Or are they resigned to arguing about how much poison in the water is acceptable?

NORTH LIMA- Area residents need to exercise their democratic right to secure a clean living environment for generations to come, according to a group of Beaver Township residents. Hundreds of concerned township residents filled the old South Range High School auditorium Tuesday night at a rally against horizontal and hydraulic fracture drilling and disposal of hazardous materials at injection wells in Ohio....A meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Beaver Township Administration Building to work with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, an organization that has been instrumental in getting the drilling banned in other communities including Pittsburgh, to draw up a community rights resolution that enacts a local bill of rights protecting the health, safety, welfare and property values of local residents.

New York (STONY1) would lose any chance of reaping the economic benefits of the shale-gas boom if local governments are allowed to ban drilling through zoning laws, advocates say. The state sits on the northern edge of the Marcellus Shale, which may hold enough natural gas to supply the U.S. for two decades, according to Terry Engelder, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University. In 2010, New York placed a moratorium on the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing so state regulators can develop rules. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow municipalities to ban the practice, a right several say they already have.

Concerns about energy independence notwithstanding, when the odor of coal dust wafting through the town offends the citizenry’s olfactory glands, the trains must be stopped. At least that’s the way some people in Bellingham, Washington see it. Activists have formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) called No Coal! to halt coal trains from traversing city property. They envision a legal system that would recognize the Rights of Nature, which apparently includes freedom from coal dust.

The Wilkinsburg council voted unanimously Wednesday night to send letters to local representatives in Harrisburg opposing legislation that would give drilling companies the ability to side-step local bans on Marcellus Shale gas drilling. The board also agreed to draft a formal resolution to denounce the House Bill 1950 and Senate Bill 1100....[Councilwoman Eve Goodman]...added that she doesn't trust corporations to self-regulate for the good a community when corporate profits are on the line.

Last Wednesday, Turkey’s Constitution Reconciliation Commission was presented with a new series of articles for inclusion in the country’s new constitution. Led by the Turkish Green Party, the articles were submitted by the Initiative for an Ecological Constitution (IEC), and prepared by environmental journalist Mahmut Boynudelik from notes he took at several recent Green Party conferences. If adopted, Turkey would have a constitution like no other in Europe or North America — but somewhat similar to the constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia, both of whose constitutions recognize legally binding rights of nature.

ARLINGTON, VA.
 — An Ithaca College professor doesn't want to see a halt to horizontal fracturing. She wants to see it banned. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, speaking at a shale drilling health forum Monday, said that fracking will not just cause an enviornmental crisis, but also a "human rights crisis."...Steingraber urged for the rapid phase-out of all fossil fuels "to avoid human calamity" and said that mitigating fracking will only curb potential environmental risks, but not eliminate them. "If we mitigate fracking to kill fewer people, we're still killing people," she said.

PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection undercounted the number of wells producing gas from the Marcellus Shale, frustrating industry, environmental groups, and elected officials, according to a newspaper report. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/weuty8 ) reported that an analysis of DEP data found 495 more wells producing gas, or ready to produce gas, than the DEP has recorded as ever being drilled, and that 182 of those wells don't even show up on the state's Marcellus Shale permit list.

With a deadline looming this week for the public to weigh in on gas drilling in New York State, the antifracking movement itself has become divided over what its goal should be: securing the nation’s toughest regulations, or winning an outright ban?...Bruce Ferguson, a founding member of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy which supports a ban [says],“No one wants to see fracking go forward under the current regime or the way it’s being done in Pennsylvania. Everyone agrees on that.”

LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio - Liberty Township resident Karen O'Malia has lived next to a neighbor's vertical gas well for a year and says it was noisy and smelly when it went in. Now, she says she'd favor a ban on drilling in the township....After eleven earthquakes centered around a brine injection well in Youngstown, Liberty trustees are looking into banning drilling in the township.

Coal is anything but king in Bellingham, though it sure is the talk of the town these days. A new citizens group has sprung to life, a political action committee called No Coal!, which is bound and determined to ban coal trains from the largest city in Whatcom County. Here's the deal: There are big plans in the making by SSA Marine to build a huge coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point and ship the product to China. This of course would mean more coal trains passing through the city's Gateway Pacific Terminal, maybe as many as 18 to 20 round-trip trains per day rolling through the center of town. "Here we are shutting down the last coal-fired plant in the state, and now we're going to ship this air polluting stuff oversees!" fumes Rick Dubrow, one of the main organizers of the committee. "That's a little bit insane, don't you think? What we're trying to show is that our community's interests are more important than that of out-of-state corporations."

NORTH ABINGTON TWP. - One month after a group approached supervisors about passing an ordinance banning natural gas drilling, officials said they wanted to wait and see what happens with two bills being considered by state legislators. In December, several residents attended the North Abington Twp. meeting to voice concerns about what effects natural gas drilling might have on the environment. They asked supervisors to consider an ordinance that would ban drilling, similar to one that has been presented to municipalities across the region.

When communities try to keep corporations from engaging in activities they don’t want, they often find they don’t have the legal power to say “no.” Why? Because our current legal structure too often protects the “rights” of corporations over the rights of actual human beings. If we are to elevate our rights and the rights of our communities above those of a corporate few, we, too, need to transform the way laws work....This style of organizing moves away from traditional activism—mired in letter writing campaigns and lowest common denominator federal and state legislation—toward a new activism in which communities claim the right to make their own decisions, directly. To help them do so, we’re offering the model Community Bill of Rights template below, a legislative template for communities that want to protect their own rights.

BELLINGHAM -- Ever since the plans for SSA Marine's coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point became public, city officials have been saying that they would have no direct control over the coal trains that would pass through the city if the Gateway Pacific Terminal is built. A new citizens' group plans to change that, but they seem to face overwhelming legal odds. Rick Dubrow, owner of A1 Builders, is one of the key organizers of a new political action committee called No Coal! On Jan. 26, Dubrow said the group will make public its draft of a proposed new city ordinance that would prohibit any transport of coal through Bellingham by rail or any other means.

"My job isn't to defend the government," Mr. Shields, 58, of Squirrel Hill, said in a farewell interview. "My job is to represent the people it serves."... Last year, Mr. Shields won his colleagues' support of legislation banning natural-gas production in the city. About two weeks ago, he won final approval of another bill aimed at holding drillers and government regulators liable for any pollution the city experiences because of production in upstream municipalities.

No disrespect meant for North Texas environmental activists who oppose Barnett Shale natural gas drilling and the hydraulic fracturing that comes with it, but people with similar views in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale are strong enough to have been given a name: "fractivists." People there even refer to them as a movement.

BELLINGHAM - Ever since the plans for SSA Marine's coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point became public, city officials have been saying that they would have no direct control over the coal trains that would pass through the city if Gateway Pacific Terminal is built. A new citizens' group plans to change all that, but they seem to face overwhelming legal odds. Rick Dubrow, owner of A1 Builders, is one of the key organizers of a new political action committee called No Coal!On Jan. 26, Dubrow said the group will make public its draft of a proposed new city ordinance that would prohibit any transport of coal through Bellingham by rail or any other means.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- A supervisor in a small rural township in northern Lycoming County took matters into his own hands when a Marcellus shale drilling company kept using a road it had been told to keep big trucks off of. Daniel Roupp cut down a half dozen trees yesterday, blocking the gravel road. “I’m thinking we got their attention,” he said today. The drilling company, Range Resources, has resubmitted a plan for repairs to the road.

The president of Forest Hills Council wants state lawmakers, each and every one, to know that the borough disagrees with a bill that would transfer all regulation of gas drilling to the state. At a meeting Wednesday, council members passed a resolution to send state lawmakers a letter decrying the regulatory bills in the House and Senate, which have yet to be reconciled, as an assault on local governments’ rights. And President Frank Porco said he wants to know their voices are heard.

The Pittsburgh region needs an "environmental rights renaissance," city Councilman Doug Shields said Wednesday, defending a controversial anti-pollution bill that may not survive into the new year. With less than two weeks remaining in Mr. Shields' last term, council gave final approval Monday to his bill attempting to hold out-of-town natural gas producers liable for any pollution in the city or poisoning of its residents. It also would attempt to hold accountable federal, state or local governments that licensed the polluters.

The thumper trucks have come, drillers are looking at two sites for shale gas wells, and residents are concerned enough to ask the township to take action to protect Millcreek Township's quality of life. More than 80 people filled the fire hall...for the Dec. 13 Millcreek Township supervisors' meeting and when township resident Molly Greenawalt asked them to stand to show support for a [sic] ordinance, to ban drilling, nearly all did so.

YOUNGSTOWN, OH: 7 protesters arrested for blockading trucks containing the highly toxic wastewater produced from hydraulic frackturing on November 30th are on trial in Youngstown. The action was carried out in response to the D&L Energy owned injection well in Youngstown, which is injecting wastewater from Pennsylvania and Ohio deep into the ground....The Youngstown injection well has caused eight nearby earthquakes since March of 2011 – seven of these with an epicenter located at the well. Arrested activist Ben Shapiro said, “Well casings and cement break and degrade in the best of circumstances leaking highly toxic chemicals, it’s far more dangerous at the epicenter of these earthquakes. How in the world can V&M Star and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources think this can be safe anywhere for our drinking water?”

Following hours of business before the Pittsburgh City Council, a measure introduced by Councilman Doug Shields on November 14th to ban municipal and state governments from licensing and permitting corporations to dump toxins from fracking activities into the environment that result in violations of rights recognized in City law by the new ordinance and by the Community Bill of Rights Ordinance banning corporate gas drilling on November 16th, 2010, came to a vote today, and gained the majority. The ordinance was adopted by a 5-4 vote and now goes to the mayor.

Local opponents of a proposed Mansfield facility to accept fracking waste from Pennsylvania -- along with people concerned about hydraulic fracturing in general -- have stepped up efforts to organize. Preferred Fluids Management, a Texas based company, plans to drill two 5,000-foot-deep injection wells on five acres southwest of Knight Parkway on Mansfield's north side....Area residents concerned about either industry -- fracking or the underground storage of its waste -- have begun networking, chiefly through Occupy Mansfield....Activists also participated in a conference call Thursday night with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, discussing what steps local groups could take to protect their communities against potential problems.

Residents concerned about hydraulic fracturing reached out to Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund for advice last week....Eric Belcastro, a CELDF community organizer, said a variety of communities in Pennsylvania have adopted laws on fracking -- and Mansfield can, too...."It isn't about fracking being good or bad, it is about who gets to decide," he said. "The fundamental problems we're faced with are about democracy."

Representatives from more than 44 municipalities in seven counties met tonight in Green Tree for a first-of-its-kind Marcellus Shale town hall meeting to address legislation that is pending in the state House and Senate. Their message to lawmakers? Don't take away our local control. "We want to send a clear, unified message to Harrisburg that we are opposed to any language that would pre-empt municipalities," said Robinson Manager Richard Ward. "Pre-emption is not an option."

The solicitor's voice shook as he tried to explain to a hostile crowd that natural gas pipelines are perfectly legal. "If we have to have this," Tom Brennan said, "let's at least try to control it and have it on our own terms." With that, to scattered applause and more groans, the township supervisors here decided to end a war over natural gas pipes that bitterly divided this town, a gateway to the rich Marcellus Shale region. The compromise was a new, custom-tailored ordinance that banned high-pressure pipelines in residential neighborhoods, but permitted them in areas zoned for farms or factories. Now, it appears the township's painstaking effort to craft a compromise between warring factions added up to nothing.

Individuals and community groups who are being assaulted by invasive corporations often make the mistake of contacting their state environmental agency or one of the nation’s major environmental groups for help, according to Thomas Linzey, executive director and co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. A state Department of Environmental Protection would seem like a logical place to call if the ecosystems in your community are under attack. According to Linzey, though, that’s not true and never has been.

Currently, U.S. state and federal law says that corporations don’t need community permission to drop pesticides overhead, or to site a toxic dump in town. We are told we cannot say “no” to the unwanted project because that would be a violation of the corporation’s Constitutional rights. We are also told that the ecosystems upon which we depend for survival are mere “property” under the law — human property to be owned and dominated, destroyed at will. But that is changing.

We’re offering the model Community Bill of Rights template...for Occupy communities that wish to begin mobilized initiative campaigns in their region. Think of the template as a menu to pick and choose what’s important in your community. It’s meant to provide a framework and a starting point, not necessarily to be used in its entirety. The text is derived from ongoing national and global work by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) such as Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution, Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,” such as corporate “personhood” and Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights initiative which narrowly missed passing by 1,000 votes last month. Those efforts have joined over a hundred other municipal campaigns that have driven into law local bills of rights.

Thousands of natural gas wells are under construction around the country, due to a growing demand for fuel and a new drilling technique that has opened up deeply buried reservoirs once thought too expensive to mine. The industry says "fracking" — hydraulic fracturing of rock containing natural gas deposits — is safe, and vital to developing new domestic natural gas sources....But communities in New Mexico and around the country are trying to put the brakes on this kind of drilling. They're worried the fluid used to break open the rock and release the gas is poisoning their water and air. They're concerned about risks posed by the explosive number of new natural gas wells.... "I'm pushing for a ban on oil and gas drilling in Mora County," said John Olivas, a Mora County commissioner.

The Rush Township Supervisors held a public hearing last night to discuss the Source Water Protection ordinance, much to the dismay of almost all who spoke at the meeting. Previously, the supervisors have considered two ordinances; one presented by members of Rush For Clean Water that would essentially ban gas drilling altogether by creating a community Bill of Rights, while the SWP ordinance would be amending the township's Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance to prohibit land disturbance such as drilling in areas that provide fresh water for public water sources.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a two-day Daniel Pennock Democracy School workshop offered by Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)....and I learned more about American history and the design and development of our current political system than I did in all of elementary school, junior high, high school, and college combined. What we learned was both inspiring and disturbing.

RUSSELL MOKHIBER, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com Mokhiber is editor of Corporate Crime Reporter. His books include “Corporate Predators: The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy.” He just wrote the piece “Richard Grossman 1943-2011.” Mokhiber said today: “When I first met him over 20 years ago, Richard Grossman was making the inside the beltway public interest groups nervous. He was calling them out for supporting ‘regulation’ of corporate wrongdoing. Instead of allowing companies to pollute a certain amount, Grossman would make it a crime to pollute even a little. Instead of regulating the nuclear power or fracking industries, he would brand them criminal enterprises and outlaw them.

An activist ahead of his time, Richard L. Grossman, a community organizer who galvanized work on a variety of progressive causes during his four-decade career, died on November 22 at a hospital in New York City, the city in which he was born sixty-eight years ago. Grossman attended Columbia University, graduating in 1965. He then served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, while living in the Washington, DC area, Grossman founded Environmentalists for Full Employment, a group that sought to unite environmental activists and unions years before the critical importance of this alliance was clear to grassroots activists of all stripes.

Richard L. Grossman, a community organizer who sought to curtail big business by raising public awareness about what he regarded as corporate abuse of power, died Nov. 22 at a hospital in New York City. He was 68 and had metastatic melanoma, said his daughter, Alyssa Grossman. Mr. Grossman worked on a variety of progressive causes during his four-decade career. In the 1970s, while living in the Washington area, he founded Environmentalists for Full Employment, a group that sought to unite environmental activists and unions. In the 1980s, he worked at the Highlander Research and Education Center, a social justice organization in Tennessee, and was executive director of Greenpeace USA.

On Monday, November 14, Councilman Doug Shields introduced a “Toxic Trespass Resulting from Unconventional Natural Gas Drilling” ordinance to City Council. “Although the media constantly reports on issues caused by shale gas extraction, our State Assembly’s lack of interest and action on the matter is most disconcerting and dismissive. Because of the State Assembly's head long efforts to enable the gas extraction industry to the detriment of the Commonwealth’s people and natural environment, I find it appropriate to introduce some level of protection for our citizens,” said Councilman Shields.

Cathy Stoops-McFarlane said she has "a very big concern for how corporations are dominating government." At Democracy School, she wasn’t alone. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund last weekend in Easton hosted Democracy School, a two-day seminar on how to confront corporate control. It drew public officials, representatives of Lafayette College and Easton residents to the city’s Nurture Nature Center.

Last month, Richard Grossman sent me an e-mail....In a footnote to the draft law, Grossman writes that “in a corporate state, law, culture, contrived celebration and tradition illegitimately clothe directors and executive officers of chartered incorporated businesses in governing authority.” “This is usurpation,” he writes. “A corporate state nurtures, enables and expedites such illegitimate governing authority by violence enforced by courts, jails, police and military force and by historians. Less-overtly ferocious institutions – for profit and non profit – routinely reinforce that reality.”

Richard Grossman passed away on Tuesday, November 22. The movement we know today to end never-intended constitutional rights for corporations as a step toward real self-governance was birthed, grew and developed to a great extent by this remarkable, complex human being with a deep passion and love for nature, humanity and justice. He influenced and inspired thousands directly, an incalculable number more indirectly.

A giant in the movement to dismantle corporate constitutional so-called "rights" has died of cancer yesterday, Tuesday 22 November 2011. He was one of my primary teachers and mentors from 1995 to 2000. I could not have founded Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (DUHC) without his core support and critical thinking. Here are some words about his life, written by my colleague Dave Henson, a founding member of Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), which Richard co-founded in 1994.

On the relatively rare occasions that city folk and suburbanites previously had to think about oil and gas drilling, many probably conjured images of grasshopper-esque rigs dotting remote landscapes like Wyoming’s mountain range, Alaska’s tundra or Oklahoma’s wind-swept plains. Most probably didn’t equate drilling with the bright lights of their big city, but they should have because urban America is fast becoming ground zero for the same fights over energy that have long threatened the great wide open.

More than 70 North Country residents gathered Wednesday night to hear about the potential for town based ordinances that could thwart Northern Pass or other corporate-promoted projects within their communities. At town hall, residents heard Gail Darrell of Barnstead, who worked to stop USA Springs from withdrawing water from a regional aquifer for bottling in Nottingham several years ago.

Municipal officials from 12 Pennsylvania counties sent a letter to state legislators Monday asking them to cut provisions from pending House and Senate Marcellus Shale bills that would limit or remove local zoning control over oil and gas drilling. The 46 officials, including five supervisors from Exeter Township, argue that the bills unfairly exempt oil and gas operations from local land use regulations or standardize limits on local control.

The Pa. State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) and five other local government organizations are urging lawmakers to reconsider language in House Bill 1950 that would strip local governments of all decision-making power over oil and gas operations in their communities, including where these operations could be located. The groups on Monday issued a joint memo to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and proposed revisions intended to meet the Legislature’s goal of establishing uniform regulations while maintaining a reasonable level of decision-making ability at the local level.

A broad-ranging bill to regulate natural gas drilling in the state and impose a fee on drillers won a key state Senate committee’s support Monday but not the bipartisan backing the high-ranking Republican sponsor had hoped for. Only one Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee crossed party lines to join Republicans in endorsing the proposal from Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, of Jefferson. The full Senate is expected to debate the bill as early as Tuesday.

Marcellus Shale gas drilling spokesmen at an industry conference in Houston said their companies are employing former military counterinsurgency officers and recommended using military-style psychological operations strategies, or psyops, to deal with media inquiries and citizen opposition to drilling in Pennsylvania communities. Matt Pitzarella, a Range Resources spokesman speaking to other oil and gas industry spokespeople at the conference last week, said the company hires former military psyops specialists who use those skills in Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields wants to hold Marcellus shale drillers and entities -- including state government -- responsible for potential air and water pollution generated by natural gas extraction. Shields on Monday introduced what he called "toxic trespass" legislation. It targets Marcellus shale explorers who permit the release of chemicals associated with fracking and government entities that allow pollution that results from shale drilling. The legislation contains civil penalties and summary criminal prosecution of violators.

A year after pushing through a ban on natural gas drilling, Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields plans to introduce legislation today that would hold drilling companies -- and federal state and local agencies that license them -- responsible for any contamination....Mr. Shields says neither the city nor Pittsburghers themselves should be contaminated by chemicals used in the drilling process, including the bromides in hydraulic fracturing fluid, often called "frack water."

Some Lancaster residents have reserved the town hall...to hold an informational public meeting on developing a self-governing rights-based ordinance that could be on the March 13, 2012, town meeting warrant, designed to fight the $1.1 billion High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Northern Pass project designed to bring 1,200-megawatts of HydroQuebec electric power to New Hampshire.

On Monday, November 14, Councilman Doug Shields will introduce "Toxic Trespass" legislation. This legislation is designed to protect the health, welfare and safety of the people of Pittsburgh....While Pittsburgh has a drilling ban in place, its water sources are not protected from activity occurring upstream.

Right up to Election Day, Peters residents were receiving sleek fliers in the mail encouraging them to vote against a referendum to ban gas drilling in the Washington County community. The mailers weren't coming from local opposition, but from Houston-based industry group Consumer Energy Alliance.

By a ratio of more than 4-1, voters in an affluent Pittsburgh suburb said natural-gas drilling could go on in their township. In Tuesday's general election, nearly 5,200 Peters Township voters rejected a referendum proposal that would have barred drilling, compared with a little more than 1,100 who voted for a ban.

Many of those elected Tuesday to serve in Spokane City Hall were the most outspoken ahead of the election that Proposition 1 would doom the economy. But the same electorate that chose those candidates also decided to give Proposition 1 – the Community Bill of Rights – a fighting chance. The ballot measure is still too close to call, although it lost ground in counting on Wednesday.

Republicans often say they are advocates of local control, repeating bromides such as "the people know better than the politicians or bureaucrats." But not when it comes to Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania. On this subject, the politicians and bureaucrats are poised to tell the people that they know best -- and never mind the local concerns of residents of municipalities across the state who will have to live with the results. Harrisburg knows best.

More than 61 percent of Newton Twp. voters who visited the polls Tuesday rejected a referendum that would have taken the first step toward a home rule charter. The referendum asked voters whether they wanted to set up a commission that would study the feasibility of adopting a home rule charter, which supporters believed would give residents more of a voice in the township's government. Tuesday's ballot also listed seven residents running for spots on that commission - many of whom said they wanted to explore the idea of home rule as a way of addressing concerns about gas drilling.

By a margin of more than four-to-one, voters in an affluent Pittsburgh suburb say natural gas drilling can go on in their township. In Tuesday's general election, nearly 5,200 Peters Township voters rejected a referendum that would have barred drilling, compared with just over 1,100 who voted for a ban....Jules Lobel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who represented the anti-drilling group in court, said the issue concerned the "whole question of local control over one's life, over things that matter."

Despite the work of a very determined group of citizens, a referendum banning Marcellus Shale gas drilling was overwhelmingly defeated Tuesday in Peters, Washington County....A similar measure in the city of Warren, Warren County, also was defeated, though one in the borough of State College, in Centre County, was approved by voters there.

The amendment that would add an environmental bill of rights to the Home Rule Charter to ban commercial natural gas extraction ... passed in Tuesday’s election. “It is a tremendous victory,” said Braden Crooks, who started the drive to get the amendment on the ballot. “It is an incredible statement by the people of State College.”

Residents in the City of Warren voted soundly Tuesday against an amendment to the city's Home Rule Charter regarding the treatment of Marcellus Shale frackwater. The referendum vote 795 Yes and 1,316 No ends the West Side Alliance' bid to ban the treatment of frackwater and natural gas extraction within the city and prohibit the storage, deposit or transport of produced water, frackwater or brine within Warren, at least through an amendment to the city's charter.

Despite the work of a determined group of citizens, a referendum banning Marcellus Shale gas drilling was overwhelmingly defeated in the Washington County township of Peters tonight....The referendum was among one of the first in the nation in which voters had a direct voice in determining whether gas well drilling -- and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- should be allowed in their neighborhoods.

While many voting precincts across Pennsylvania are reporting low turnout this general election day, poll workers in Peters said a referendum that would ban Marcellus shale drilling in the township is attracting a surge of voter interest. Residents are voting on a referendum that would essentially make all natural gas extraction activity illegal — and supersede all state and federal laws. A petition drive put the measure on the ballot in the Washington County community despite concerns of township officials that such a law would be illegal and result in expensive legal challenges.

By a vote of 72% in favor, the people of the Borough of State College, home of Penn State University, adopted an amendment to their home rule charter that constitutionalizes a Local Bill of Rights, and protects those rights by prohibiting natural gas extraction and associated activities.

Last month, Forest Hills joined a growing list of Pennsylvania municipalities to ban natural gas drilling. But while activists call the measure a win for the community, questions about whether the ban would withstand legal challenges still loom. Local concern over the hazards of hydraulic fracturing—a process by which drillers inject a mixture of water, sand and chemicals through a well at high pressure to fracture shale rock and extract natural gas—has escalated over the past few years. Following Pittsburgh’s ban on drilling last November, communities such as Baldwin, West Homestead and Wilkinsburg have adopted similar legislation.

Communities including the city of Pittsburgh have attempted to ban natural gas drilling by legislative action. But a referendum question on the ballot in Tuesday's election in Peters Township could mark the first time that a group of citizens has tried to force a ban by changing the community's home rule charter. The township council has opposed the effort.

Amid the sea of colorful, plastic campaign signs scattered around Peters are angrier, bolder signs flapping in the wind, screaming "VOTE NO!! Protect Your Township," and "Vote Yes! Protect Our Property Values." They are part of the battle for the hearts and minds of voters in this affluent municipality of about 21,000 residents. The fight, which has already garnered attention from the national media, pits residents and energy companies who advocate drilling in the Marcellus Shale gas formation against a citizens group that is seeking to ban it in Washington County's most populous municipality through a voter referendum on Tuesday.

A group in Newton Twp. concerned about the possible effects of natural gas drilling is asking residents to weigh in on whether to study ways to change their local government in the hopes of banning drilling altogether. Newton Twp. residents will vote Tuesday on a referendum that would allow the formation of a commission to study the existing form of government and consider the advisability of adopting a home rule charter.

Since the Citizens United decision last year, in which the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for even more corporate money in our elections, I’ve been increasingly concerned about the ability of corporations to decide what happens in our country and our city.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority on Friday accused four industrial wastewater treatment plants on the Allegheny River and its tributaries of increasing bromide levels in the river that supplies drinking water to nearly 500,000 people

The exact text of the ballot question: Shall Article II of the City of Warren's Home Rule Charter be amended to add a "Bill of Rights" enumerating rights to water, natural communities, sustainable energy future and local self government; banning natural gas extraction, except installed and operating wells; banning deposit, storage or transport of natural gas extraction by-products; and elevating the rights created under this amendment above those rights claimed by persons or corporations violating this amendment?

Residents of the City of Warren will vote Tuesday, Nov. 8 on a referendum that would amend the city's charter and ban the treatment of Marcellus Shale frackwater and natural gas extraction within the city, prohibit the storage, deposit or transport of "produced water" "frackwater," brine or other materials, chemicals or byproducts from unconventional development of natural gas from shale formation within Warren. What the referendum will allow and not allow within the city has been debated by the West Side Alliance, the group formed last year to oppose the proposed waste water treatment plant on the city's west end and petitioned the referendum for the ballot; the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal services for the West Side Alliance; city officials; some local businesses; and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association.

One surprise on Election Night was Spokane's so-called Community Bill of Rights, with only 115 votes separating the Yes and No columns. On the ballot it's known as Spokane Proposition 1, and the early returns Tuesday night were a surprise for the president of the Envision Spokane Board, Brad Read, when he saw the results. Read was in a state of disbelief and said the outcome so far was nothing short of stunning.

Mr. Merrell recently posted an open letter to the people of Peters in which he made several assertions regarding the content of the ballot referendum. Based on the development of the western intellectual tradition in the last century in relation to environmental ethics, environmental law, and human rights, I respectfully disagree with several of his comments and conclusions. Further it is my contention that the referendum is not a meaningless document but the natural outgrowth of the western intellectual tradition that has its origin in the philosophies of the Enlightenment thinkers.

State College voters have an exciting opportunity on Tuesday. Together with two other communities, State College will have the first popular vote on a community bill of rights and natural gas drilling ban in the country.

Those walking into Rolling Hills Country Club Wednesday night to listen to speakers regarding flaws surrounding the amendment to the home rule charter being voted on Tuesday in Peters Township were greeted by the opposition with a hand out of their own. Inside, more than 30 people—including supporters, opposition, commissioners and curious residents—attended the special informative meeting held by Peters Township resident Suzanne Kennedy and her husband Jimmy Moran.

Legislation that could provide for state pre-emption of local gas drilling ordinances won approval from a House committee Wednesday on a party-line vote. The measure approved 15 to 10 by the Finance Committee would amend the 1984 Oil and Gas Act to supercede local ordinances in areas where the state has an "appropriate" regulation, according to a committee bill summary....Local governments would have difficulty keeping wells away from residential areas and schools with the bill's pre-emption provision, said Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-120, Kingston, the ranking Democrat on the panel. "The bill strips from local governments what little power they have to locate wells," she added.

House Republicans moved ahead with a natural gas drilling impact fee plan that, they said, strikes a balance between protecting the state and allowing the growing industry to continue adding jobs. The new impact fee plan reflects the recommendations of Gov. Tom Corbett's Marcellus shale commission by implementing a county-level fee of up to $40,000 per well over a 10-year period, with 75 percent of the revenue remaining with local governments in the areas where drilling takes place.

Many people in Sidney, N.Y., were outraged when the town board voted unanimously to provide a 50-year franchise to Leatherstocking Gas Co. for a natural gas pipeline at a meeting last month. Dozens shouted “Postpone the vote!” as they protested the town board’s vote in favor of the franchise. Their fear: that it will open the door to the controversial natural gas drilling technique known as fracking.

Local rules for gas drilling would be null and void under the Marcellus Shale legislation swiftly approved by a House panel on Wednesday, highlighting a key obstacle in crafting a drilling oversight measure....But the section drawing the loudest concerns from Democratic members of the House Finance Committee, environmental advocates and others was a provision stating that statewide rules would supersede all local ordinances regulating oil and gas operations.

A gas drilling bill that House Republicans introduced on Wednesday imposes a statewide standard for local zoning but does not require an impact fee, mirroring Gov. Tom Corbett's plan. The Marcellus shale bill by Rep. Brian Ellis, R-Butler County, leaves it to counties to decide whether to impose a fee on each natural gas well. That was a linchpin of the proposal Corbett announced last month in Pittsburgh.

After an hour of heated discussion, a state House panel approved a Republican-backed drilling impact fee bill on a party-line vote this morning....The House GOP provision to supersede drilling rules came from the Corbett administration. The governor has said publicly that he believes those local rules should be standardized, a request that drillers also have voiced repeatedly.

A public hearing was held last night to discuss the ordinance brought forth to Rush Township by the group Rush For Clean Water that would ban gas drilling. Most people in attendance were in favor of the outright ban, while a couple spoke of the dangers passing the ordinance could bring....Rob Bailey said drilling in the township's watershed would be "insane." He said the whole idea of gas drilling is essentially a problem with democracy.

The two state legislative chambers are reversing roles on Marcellus Shale regulations, with an impact fee from the House GOP gaining steam and the Senate delaying a vote on its levy proposal until mid-November....The question of how much control localities should have in regulating gas drilling may become one of the biggest sticking points among the proposals.

Major­ity Leader Mike Turzai is back­ing a mea­sure being drafted by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Brian Ellis, which will include pro­vi­sions backed by the Cor­bett Administration....[T]he Cor­bett admin­is­tra­tion has urged law­mak­ers and staffers to include a pro­vi­sion that would com­pletely pre-empt local zon­ing ordi­nances on oil and gas drilling.

A public hearing Tuesday on an ordinance banning natural gas drilling in Rush Township attracted dozens of supporters — and a lawyer representing drillers who made it clear his clients were not pleased. Tim Harper, of Philipsburg, was one of half a dozen attendees who spoke in favor of Community Prevention of Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance on behalf of the anti-drilling group Rush for Clean Water. Most of the 50 people present showed their support for the group by applauding each of its speakers after they had finished.

The Affirmation of the proposed referendum on November 8, which would direct the City of Warren to amend its Home Rule Charter to prohibit extraction of natural gas within the City as well as prohibit the storage, deposit or transfer of by-products of the extraction process "within, upon or through the land, air or waters of the City of Warren" is strongly opposed by the Warren County Chamber of Business & Industry (WCCBI).

Words of Wisdom: When the last tree is cut, When the last river is emptied, when the last fish is caught....