Vice-Mayor El Warner Introducing Anti-Fracking Resolution at Next City Council Meeting: Wednesday, December 22nd

Natural gas wells already fracked in Western PA so far--now gas companies want 

to drill tens of thousands of wells along the Delaware River--the drinking water 

source for 15 million of us.

NEXT ACTION: Support El Warner's resolution in support of Pittsburgh's new anti-fracking ordinance at Easton's next city council meeting--Wednesday, Dec. 22nd at 6pm in the Alpha Building at One South Third Street, 6th Floor in Easton!

Posted by: Noël Jones


I am encourage by some recent developments in the fight to stop hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" for natural gas, which is contaminating drinking water all over the country with neurotoxins, endocrine disruptors, radioactivity and other cancer-causing agents, making people seriously ill in their own homes. Recently, with the help of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and their democracy workshops, citizens have been learning how to fight drilling on a constitutional basis and win, rather than in a regulatory legal arena, where Big Gas prefers to fight, because they can afford all the fancy lawyers they need to keep things going in their favor.


As reported in my earlier post, Pittsburgh, Licking Township and Nockamixon residents have all succeeded in drafting and passing ordinances banning fracking from their city limits. As more and more communities across PA take action in this way, we will begin to build the momentum we need to protect one of the great freedoms we take for granted: free, clean, healthy tap water in our homes. I don't care if you're a conservative, a liberal, or anywhere in between--if you don't want to get sick, lose your property value, and have a big new bill each month for paying to haul water to ration in your homes, then this is YOUR FIGHT, and it is OUR FIGHT.


Vice-Mayor El Warner has stepped up to the plate and is proposing a

resolution at Easton's next city council meeting in support of Pittsburgh's new ordinance to ban fracking, paving the way for Easton and other communities along the Delaware and Lehigh rivers to do the same:


'Because the powers of regulation of fracking have been taken by the state
and federal government, and because Pittsburgh's City Council doesn't trust
either "higher" body to effectively regulate, and because they take
seriously the right of municipal government granted in PA's state
constitution to ensure that "people have...clean air, pure water..."(Article
1, Section 27), they have passed an ordinance banning fracking in the City
of Pittsburgh.

They hope to send a message to the State Legislature that they take
seriously their obligations to protect the people and environment in their
community. They are also prepared for an inevitable legal challenge to this
legislation.

At our next council meeting, I will be introducing a Resolution supporting
Pittsburgh's City Council in their efforts and calling for the
constitutional right to local community self-government, so that should the
City of Easton wish to ban fracking outright within our boundaries we have
the right to do so.'


I know it's close to the holidays, but for anyone who will be in town, please join me in supporting El Warner's leadership in this resolution at city hall on Wednesday, Dec. 22nd at 6pm in the Alpha Building at One South Third Street, 6th Floor in Easton.


You do not have be from Easton to show up in support of this resolution. If you don't want the map of Eastern PA to look like the one above, we have to fight now--I hope to see you there!