[CRNMC] need of a letter to the editor to the Willits Weekly

[edward Oberweiser]

Dear folks,

Someone wrote a very inaccurate and misleading letter to the editor for the
Willits Weekly. Shannon wrote an email to everyone asking someone to answer
it and not let it stand.

I wrote one and it was rejected by the publication because they don't
accept LTEs from outside the third district.

Please someone who lives in the third district answer this fallacious LTE.

I enclose a copy of the LTE below.


Thanks
Ed Oberweiser

Community Rights and Wrongs
To the Editor:
In last week’s paper, Peter Norris wrote about the
Community Rights Network of Mendocino County
(CRNMC) and its signature gathering campaign. CRNMC
has proposed a local ordinance to ban fracking and create
a “Community Bill of Rights,” bestowing legal rights on
“[a]ll residents, natural communities and ecosystems in
Mendocino County ... to water, air and soil that is untainted
by toxins, carcinogens, particulates, nucleotides, and
hydrocarbons introduced into the environment through
unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons.”

I think we can agree that it is good to have clean water,
soil and air. I am a lifelong moderate environmentalist,
and I support reasonable environmental regulations.

But almost all human activity has some effect on the natural
environment. I believe environmental concerns must be
balanced against other human needs – for homes, heat,
fuel, roads, jobs, computers and food, for instance.

I am wary of environmental campaigns that seek to elevate
the “rights” of trees, plants and wildlife over the rights of
humans. We humans are part of nature, and we have a
right to live, too.

I am very wary of the proposed Community Rights ordinance for Mendocino
County because it would allow any resident of the county to sue any
government or private entity for perceived environmental impacts on any
“natural
community” – which includes any “wildlife, flora, fauna, soil
and air-dwelling and aquatic organisms…." The proposed
ordinance would also provide for recovery of expert and
attorneys fees and litigation costs by any resident who
sues on behalf of a tree or a frog harmed by someone

The proposed
ordinance would also provide for recovery of expert and
attorneys fees and litigation costs by any resident who
sues on behalf of a tree or a frog harmed by someone.

I am afraid of fracking. I have read enough about it to know
it seems horribly dangerous to the environment, to wildlife
and to humans. I would sign a petition to enact an anti-
fracking ordinance in Mendocino County. But I am also
afraid of overzealous environmental activists who might
use the proposed ordinance to disrupt local life and cost us
all a whole lot of money.

Before signing CRNMC’s petition, I urge everyone to read
the proposed ordinance on their website (www.crnmc.org)
and try to imagine the worst possible effects if even one
unreasonable resident of Mendocino County wishes to
sue the county or private parties for some small perceived
harm to nature


Randi Covin, Brooktrails
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