Summary
In 2013 Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) obtained a federal permit to inject fracking waste into an abandoned well within the town. Community members responded in 2014 by adopting an ordinance recognizing rights of nature and blocking injection wells in the town (see the initiative Grant Township Ordinance Establishing Bill of Rights). In 2015 a federal judge overturned the ordinance, ruling it was preempted by state and federal law. In 2015, members of Grant Township responded by adopting a Home Rule Charter (a local municipal constitution that overrides the second-class status of a municipality in a US state) to circumvent the preemptive nature of state constitutions over municipalities. Grant Township’s Home Rule charter declares that Grant Township residents, and “all natural communities and ecosystems within the township, possess the right to clean air, water, and soil.” Section 106 states that “natural communities and ecosystems within Grant Township, including, but not limited to, rivers, streams, and aquifers, possess the right to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve,” and section 105 explicitly states Nature’s right to be free from damaging activities, including “waste from oil and gas extraction.” In 2017, the Pennsylvania state Department of Environmental Protection sued Grant Township claiming the charter violated state law, which authorized injection wells. The trial court agreed and invalidated the charter as preempted by state law, but an appellate court reversed this decision. It concluded that the state law allowing injection wells might itself be invalid as conflicting with the Pennsylvania state constitution’s guarantee of the peoples’ right to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of the environment – a guarantee which had been interpreted to create what amounted to a public trust for the peoples’ benefit. The case went back to the trial court. However, the private utility corporation, PGE joined the lawsuit and requested judgment against the town without trial. As of February 2022, that request was still pending.