Watch and share our Video of the Week: Medina County Can’t Vote to Ban Fracking
All over the country the fracking industry isn’t just threatening the health and safety of local communities; they are fracturing democracy itself.
In Ohio last week, Secretary of State John Husted determined that three Ohio counties didn’t have the right to vote on local charters that would ban fracking despite getting enough signatures to be on the ballot.
Husted said he was ‘unmoved’ by the arguments of Medina, Fulton and Athens County residents who are being inundated by dangerous fracking infrastructure projects such as wastewater injection wells and pipelines, siding instead with the American Petroleum Institute, the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
This blatant attack on democracy isn’t just happening in Ohio. In May, Texas legislators decided corporate profits trumped the health and safety of its citizens when they passed a bill that banned fracking bans in response to a resident led initiative that banned fracking in the town of Denton, Texas.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a similar bill into law despite the fact that her state is being rocked by hundreds of earthquakes each year caused by fracking injection wells.
Communities in Colorado are facing similar attacks on their grassroots led and voter approved fracking bans and moratoriums.
Residents in Ohio are now suing Secretary Husted over the decision. They are being represented by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), a non-profit, public interest law firm that helped residents initially draft their county charters.
It’s startling to see elected officials systematically strip the right to govern from their citizens and place it in the hands of the fossil fuel industry, but hopefully this insane power grab will be enough to wake up more people to the dangers of fracking.
Because it’s not just the potential damage to our environment we must stop, it’s the dismantling of American democracy.
Stand up for citizens’ right to governor, please watch and share our video of the week.
Thanks and have a great week,
Lee Ziesche, Grassroots Coordinator
You can support local grassroots efforts in Ohio by donating to the following groups:
Sustainable Medina County
PO Box 1033
Wadsworth, OH 44282
sustainablemedinacounty.org
Fulton County Common Sense
Fulton County CSEC
c/o Mary Foster
4483 Co Rd 3
Swanton, Ohio 43558
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