{"id":13616,"date":"2015-10-20T08:57:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T13:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13616"},"modified":"2015-10-20T08:57:37","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T13:57:37","slug":"communities-pushing-for-legal-rights-to-regain-power-over-fracking-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13616","title":{"rendered":"Communities Pushing For Legal Rights To Regain Power Over Fracking Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2015\/10\/20\/communities-pushing-legal-rights-regain-power-over-fracking-companies\" target=\"_blank\">Communities Pushing For Legal Rights To Regain Power Over Fracking Companies<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>A Colorado group with concerns about the environmental impacts of fracking are pushing for a fundamental change to the state\u2019s legal system to give communities greater power over\u00a0corporations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coloradansforcommunityrights.org\/%20\" target=\"_blank\">Coloradans for Community Rights<\/a>\u00a0has set its sights on dismantling the legal system where state laws take precedence over local\u00a0rules.<\/p>\n<p>This system where local authorities must fall back on state law instead of forming their own makes it nearly impossible to raise minimum wages, set environmental protections, or even strengthen tenant rights and set rent\u00a0controls.<\/p>\n<p>In August,\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CCR<\/span>\u00a0launched a statewide initiative:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coloradansforcommunityrights.org\/ccr-amendment\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Colorado Community Rights Amendment<\/a>. The group plans to gather the necessary 99,000 signatures necessary to place the community rights amendment on the 2016 ballot.\u00a0In 2014, a similar initiative was proposed but not enough signatures were collected to qualify for the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>By bringing together a broad coalition of environmental, economic and social justice fighters, the\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CCR<\/span>\u00a0is optimistic its model will be successful in bringing about political and legal\u00a0change.<\/p>\n<p>The moves come as the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/article\/3b3f2de82021411a909c5e963a4c1082\/colorados-high-court-decide-if-cities-can-ban-fracking\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to adjudicate<\/a>\u00a0in battles between community groups and fracking\u00a0companies.<\/p>\n<p>In early October,\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CCR<\/span>\u00a0was at the Stop the Frack Attack national summit in Denver to raise awareness about its\u00a0mission.<\/p>\n<p>The community rights amendment would \u201callow real democracy to start to happen in the country,\u201d said\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CCR<\/span>\u00a0Member Rick\u00a0Casey.<\/p>\n<p>Casey explained the amendment was crucial because it puts local policymakers and local communities in control over, as the amendment states, the \u201ccompeting rights, powers, privileges, immunities, or duties of\u00a0corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado ballot initiative is part of the fledgling national Community Rights Movement, which works off the legal model proposed by the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/celdf.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/06\/29\/us-usa-fracking-lawsuits-insight-idUSKCN0P90E320150629\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>\u00a0reported that 18 communities in six states have been supported by\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CELDF<\/span>\u00a0in passing community rights\u00a0law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Communities Pushing For Legal Rights To Regain Power Over Fracking Companies A Colorado group with concerns about the environmental impacts of fracking are pushing for a fundamental change to the state\u2019s legal system to give communities greater power over\u00a0corporations. Coloradans for Community Rights\u00a0has set its sights on dismantling the legal system where state laws take [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6],"tags":[5503,10020,5317,331,412],"class_list":["post-13616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-colorado","tag-community-rights-movement","tag-desmog-blog","tag-fracking","tag-hydraulic-fracturing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13617,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616\/revisions\/13617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}