Both the House and Senate have approved language to ban Rights of Nature enforcement.
A press release published by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund on June 27th, 2019.
COLUMBUS, OH: This Sunday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is scheduled to sign off on a new state budget for 2020-2021.
Hidden within the 3,000+ page document are several paragraphs prohibiting the enforcement of a paradigm-shifting concept that has taken root in the state: legally enforceable rights for ecosystems. The budget bill comes four months after residents of Toledo passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) city charter amendment that recognizes the lake’s rights to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”
The proposed House language reads:
“Nature or any ecosystem does not have standing to participate in or bring an action in any court of common pleas….No person, on behalf of or representing nature or an ecosystem, shall intervene in any manner.”
The state is coming out on the wrong side of history as the government tries to stop Rights of Nature, a concept that is experiencing accelerating growth around the planet.
(Read the rest of this press release HERE.)