[Community Rights Network] FAQ-Signature Gathering

[Carrie Durkee]

Hello all:

I thought everyone might want this. 
Carrie

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Shannon Biggs <shannon at globalexchange.org>
> Subject: Some questions answered from your FAQ
> Date: April 14, 2014 2:54:42 PM PDT
> To: Carrie Durkee <cdurkee at mcn.org>
> 
> FAQs Mendocino
>  
> Shouldn’t we let the state ban fracking at the state level? 
> This is answered in the toolkit, and in the email I sent out today. ;-) 
>  
> How is a community rights ordinance different than other methods of banning fracking? 
> 
> This ordinance doesn’t seek to convince voters that fracking is good or bad based on what the state says, or fracking corporations, or other experts.  Residents are the only experts on living in Mendocino County, and only residents should make decisions about things will directly impact local health, safety and welfare. Only residents should make decisions about protecting water. This isn’t a fracking ban based on zoning  – this is a community rights ordinance that says the decision about fracking in Mendocino isn’t the state’s to make, it is up to the residents -  to protect local water, and we won’t be fracked no matter what the state says. Fracking isn’t appropriate in Mendocino County.
>  
> Zoning ordinances say that you must find an appropriate zone for legal activities such as fracking. Some communities have tried with varying success to zone something harmful out of existence. When a zoning ban is sued, the question is one of jurisdiction.   Community Rights ordinances are a matter of civil rights – the question is if you do end up in court which would you rather argue – on jurisdiction or the right to decide? We believe the latter is a stronger argument not just in court, but as a movement joined by hundreds of other communities who have taken up this civil rights struggle. 
>  
>  
> Home rule – this question is answered in the Community Rights toolkit. 
> This is an ordinance, not a new charter for Mendocino county. However, the question about local self-governance 
>  
>  
> What if folks vote to adhere to a lower standard of water quality than regulatory law? 
> We call this tyranny of the majority – the idea that if a majority votes for something we must go along with it, even if its wrong or dangerous.  That is not how rights work. Under a rights-based framework the decision isn’t just whether the majority votes for it – but the impact on rights. We have the right to protect our health safety and welfare locally – we don’t have the right to deny our neighbors’ rights, or the rights of the health of an ecosystem upon which the community depends. In this way, rights are the decision-maker.  Can we frack without violating the rights of our water or safety of residents? No.  So we ban it. 
>  
> FROM THE TOOLKIT: With the help the Halliburton corporation (which invented the technology used for modern fracking)fracking was deemed “so safe” it was exempted from federal regulatory oversight including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Superfund Act and other laws. The fracking corporations areabove those laws. Many states decided to follow the EPA’s lead.  
> 
> FROM THE TOOLKIT: It’s also important to note how regulatory laws get created in the first place. Often, it is the industry to
> be regulated that helps create the laws with our lawmakers! Corporations routinely define the amount of
> harm they anticipate will occur, and the state legalizes that amount of harm. Regulatory agencies issue
> permits that allow corporations to impose harms on human health and the environment, and protect the
> corporations from liability to the community and individuals for the legalized harms inflicted.
> 
>  
> Is there any danger of fracking in Mendocino? 
> I believe you have better answers to this than I do, but I did send you some information about fracking up there and it would appear yes, your county has open permits issued for 2015.  There is also offshore fracking happening, and certainly fracking inside and outside the county pose a threat to your available water and purity of your water.  The best way to protect your community, farms and water from fracking is to assert your right to ban it before it happens. Always. This is true in every community where fracking has been proposed. 
>  
> What happens if you are sued?
> In that what if case, CELDF will prepare your defense and act as consultant to your case, in concert with a local lawyer who will do the filing. Global Exchange can assist you in finding an appropriate lawyer at a pro-bono rate, and we will begin an organizing machine to accompany the lawsuit, that includes bringing in hundreds of organizations for assistance, editorials, public campaigns, protests, media and fundraising.  160+ communities have passed community rights ordinances. Only two are under litigation. 
>  
> Illegal ordinance question is answered in the toolkit. 

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