This article by Lauren Karch appeared in Nonprofit Quarterly, January 22nd, 2018.

January 10, 2018; Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone reported earlier this month that a federal judge has issued what could be a groundbreaking sanction on a nonprofit law firm. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) was ordered in early January to pay $52,000 to an oil and gas exploration company for defending a rural township’s ban on underground injections of waste from fracking. The Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association sought the sanctions after a six-year battle with Grant Township, a rural Pennsylvania township.

CELDF has defended the township’s efforts to pass ordinances preventing an industrial site build. The township’s residents drafted a Community Bill of Rights ordinance in 2014 prohibiting the dumping of toxic frack waste within the community. MORE…