This article by John Bear appeared in the Daily Camera, March 20th, 2018.
An attorney for the anti-fracking group East Boulder County United has sent a letter to the city of Lafayette suggesting possible legal action regarding the city’s Climate Bill of Rights that was passed last year, albeit without a provision that would protect protesters from legal consequences.
Last year, the Lafayette City Council approved a Climate Bill of Rights but removed a provision in the original version that protected those who engaged in non-violent civil disobedience to oppose fracking.
The provision to legalize non-violent direct action protests — including sit-ins, strikes, workplace occupations or blockades — would target drilling activity and allow protesters almost unprecedented immunity from arrest or detainment.
The organization’s attorney, Karen Breslin, wrote in a letter posted on Facebook that the ordinance passed last year constitutes a ban on oil and gas without any additional legislation.
“The ordinance asserts that Lafayette residents have ‘the right to be free from all activities within the City of Lafayette that interfere with the right to a healthy climate,'” she wrote. MORE…