Lawyers face major penalties for defending communities and ecosystems. This article by Mark Hand was published in Think Progress, February 5, 2018. Oil and gas companies are moving beyond simply filing lawsuits against municipalities that pass ordinances banning drilling and other types of industrial activity. In recent months, the energy industry, along with a state attorney [...]
Residents ban unsustainable energy projects at Special Town Meeting A Press Release from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from February 1, 2018. Last night, residents at a Special Town Meeting in Plymouth, NH, voted 132 to 19 to adopt their Community Rights-Based Ordinance for a Sustainable Energy Future. The ordinance asserts their right to clean [...]
This 46 minute video interview was posted on the National Community Rights Network (NCRN) website, January 31st, 2018. Tom Groover interviews New Hampshire community organizers Michelle Sanborn, Monica Christofill and Douglas Darrell. Michelle and Monica are organizers with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), and Douglas is a Board member of the NHCRN and the NCRN. Michelle begins [...]
This one hour video interview was posted on the National Community Rights Network (NCRN) website, January 29th, 2018. Tom Groover has an INCREDIBLE conversation with grassroots activists Markie Miller and Will Falk about recognizing and protecting the Rights of Nature through local law-making as a legal solution to a fixed governmental/corporate state system. This fixed system places [...]
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. A Blog Posting by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from January 21, 2018. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in 1995 In the 1990’s, CELDF was a conventional environmental law firm. We believed that if only there were more [...]
This letter by the Grant Township of Pennsylvania Supervisors was published on the Community Legal Defense Fund's (CELDF) website, January 12, 2018. Today the elected supervisors of Grant Township, PA, responded to the sanctions against Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) attorneys who have “defended our community’s right to stop a toxic frack wastewater injection [...]
This article by Sandy Kurtz appears in The Pulse, December 13, 2017. How weakening of water protections affect us all, here and abroad The recent weakening of water protection in Chattanooga’s stormwater ordinance favors homebuilders over water quality despite numerous citizen objections based on engineering and scientific knowledge. The process allowed homebuilder profit at the [...]
This article by Joey Horan appeared in Belt Magazine, November 21, 2017. In late September, temperatures in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan eclipsed 90 degrees for six straight days. Perhaps those who lived further off the shores of Lake Erie worked their cognitive dissonance muscles enough to enjoy the extended summer, but there was no [...]
This article by Lindsey Fendt appeared in the Post Independent November 18, 2017. Beneath the dim red glow of string lights at the Mercury Cafe in downtown Denver, about 25 people gathered Tuesday afternoon to rally support for a lawsuit against the state on behalf of the Colorado River. The case, the first of its [...]
This original article by Laura Legere appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 13, 2017. The natural gas wells in the cornfields and woods here are a fact of the landscape, more numerous than houses. Obvious markers of the business, like tanks and pump jacks, are usually painted green to make them less obtrusive.The Marjorie C. [...]
