The Life You Save May Be Your Own - Youngstown To Vote YES May 7

Truths, Part 1 of 2, April 19, 2013: An Answer to Alan D. Wenger’s Polemical and Partisan Q & A Regarding the Proposed Youngstown Charter Amendment

The Vote is May 7, 2013 Primary Ballot
PROPOSED CHARTER AMENDMENT - CITY OF YOUNGSTOWN - A majority affirmative vote is necessary for passage: Shall Section 4, Community Bill of Rights, of the Charter of the City of Youngstown be enacted?

(The citizens of Youngstown, Ohio used the democratic process and followed all the procedures to get this crucial Charter Amendment on the ballot.)

In his Author’s note, as he did his best to persuade citizens of Youngstown to vote against their own best interest against the Community Bill of Rights, Alan D. Wenger said this: “It was prepared at the request of individual city legislators and officials who asked for background information from my experience and perspective as an attorney active in representing largely landowners with their oil and gas leasing and development issues. Nothing here should be relied upon as attorney-client advice.”   Alan D. Wenger's full opinion piece can be read HERE.

I agree. Nothing in Mr. Wenger’s opinions should be seen as anything other than partisan rhetoric representing the interests of those standing to profit at the expense of the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City of Youngstown. Nor should his opinion be “relied upon as attorney-client advice,” as he clearly cautions us.

And so what value can we attach to Mr. Wenger’s long harangue against the proposed Community Bill of Rights? He wrote this:

Q. Why this charter amendment?

Alan Wenger: In 2004 Ohio like many other states established state-wide uniform laws and regulations  governing utilities and services needed all across the state that preempted local government organizations (including home rule cities and townships) that might desire to establish local conflicting laws. State preemption addresses “NIMBY” (Not in My Back Yard) laws that would make it impossible to have efficient development of resources, distribution of electricity, cell service, telephone service, natural gas, and many other similar public needs. Preemption laws vary from state to state. Ohio’s laws are clear: A city cannot pass laws that would preempt state laws and regulations concerning oil and gas development.

Lynn Anderson: [I am the concerned citizen who originally contacted the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and my legal aid lawyer, Jim Callen to write the original ordinance(in April 2012) and now, the ballot initiative (Oct. 2012): The Youngstown Community Bill of Rights. We modeled our Home Rule City Charter Amendment on the Pittsburgh charter that was written in response to the preemptive Pennsylvania Oil and Gas act. Youngstown residents are fighting Ohio's preemptive state laws beginning with H.B. 278 which took away our local control.
Due to the Ohio Legislature passing many preemptive state laws: beginning in 2001 and up to the present day -
    1.  H.B. 94: oil and gas companies do not have declare dangerous chemicals;
    2. H.B.133: oil and gas companies can drill under any state universities, state parks,
    3. H.B. 278 oil and gas companies can site drilling operations and pipelines anywhere and local communities have neither input nor right of appeal 
    4.S.B. 315 further strengthens physician gag orders regarding people being sickened by fracking chemicals with “Designate without Disclosing”;
Youngstown citizens are standing up to PROTECT THEMSELVES since state and local officials are not.]

Wenger: The proponents of the Youngstown Charter Amendment were guided by a national non-profit group headquartered in Pennsylvania, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (www.celd.org/). The CELD and its local adherents who circulated petitions to get this issue on the ballot see Youngstown as just another battle ground in their war against fossil fuels and “corporations.”

Anderson: [First, it is CELDF, not CELD. Second, it was not the CELDF organization that circulated the petition. It was local community organizers who asked for CELDF support, and it is they who circulated the petitions and assembled the support of City residents to place the question on the ballot.]

Wenger: The CELD supplied the boilerplate “Community Bill of Rights” language and methods for getting sufficient petition signatures, asking residents if they would support an initiative to promote a “Community Bill of Rights to have clean air and water.”

Anderson:  [In fact, CELDF worked with community members and Attorney Jim Callen of Northeast Ohio Legal Services to customize the Community Bill of Rights for Youngstown.]

Wenger: Who would not sign on to that proposition, particularly without first reading the fine print?

Anderson:  [We walked door to door and showed the entire Charter Amendment to each citizen, each petition signer saw and read the proposed Charter Amendment, as is required by law].

Wenger: In fact the CELD, as reflected on its website, is a strident, partisan advocacy group challenging centralized government regulation of utilities and energy resourcesi and instead favors strictly individual rights and controls.

Anderson: [In fact, CELDF is stridently NON-PARTISAN and advocates for the rights of those affected by governing decisions to make them. Plus, our citizens who got petition signatures happen to be members of the Green Party, Republican Party, Democrat Party and unaffiliated, Independent voters.]

Wenger: Its mission is not based upon political or physical sciences, engineering, best means of governance and planning theory, but rather on pure political populism. It favors a sweeping “power to the individual” approach, and doesn’t appear to worry much about the havoc its approach would create upon public services, safety, health, and welfare. It is blatantly “anticorporation,” but fails to provide any viable alternatives for addressing the vast needs for energy, utilities, goods and services that are particularly critical to urban populations.

Anderson: [Our Citizen activists started getting all the rigorous, scholarly scientific research on hydrofracturing beginning in March of 2011. We invited all of our local elected officials to attend 4 educational town halls at the Unitarian Church only 2 council people and one park board commissioner came to a couple of them. The James Dale ETHICS center of YSU paid for a video teleconference with Tony Ingraffea, PhD of Cornell, the national expert on frack well dangers. It was held at YSU and only the Washington pro-fracking lobbyist group EID attended, to film and get material for Dan Alfaro to dispute in the Vindicator. CELDF supports good science, and then asserts the right of communities to review good studies and incorporate them into democratic decision-making, rather than allow industry propaganda dictate democratic decision-making.Youngstown Citizens were especially concerned since ODNR tried to tell us none of the earthquakes were caused by the D&L Injection well, which has been proven now to be untrue.]

 Wenger: The CELD is pushing an “end run” around Ohio’s established system of laws, as well as the Ohio and US constitutions, by promoting this ballot initiative in Youngstown, even when at least some of what it is pushing is clearly not enforceable.

Anderson:  [It is a false claim to say that the state of OH can license and permit corporations to engage in activities that violate the fundamental rights of citizens of the state. The Youngstown initiative simply asserts the higher law of fundamental rights and clarifies that the State has no authority to issue “permits” that legalize the violation of fundamental rights.]

Wenger: This organization is playing games with Youngstown’s future, though it has little stake in the outcome or responsibility for the harm it could create.

Anderson:  [The writer (Mr. Wenger) has NO stake in the violation of the rights of Youngstown residents and is disingenuous to make this claim. He does NOT live in Youngstown. CELDF has no other purpose but the empowerment of citizens in their communities. It is our mission. What is the mission of Mr. Wenger? He had an opportunity to read the mission of CELDF and truthfully report it. He chose not to. I personally resent this irresponsible statement. We citizens are trying to PROTECT OURSELVES FROM HARM.]

Q. Has this been done in other cities?

Wenger:  Yes, but not under similar facts or with such critical risk to the citizens involved.

Anderson: [Mr. Wenger tells an untruth here: Pittsburgh, PA, Broadview Heights, Ohio, Mansfield, Ohio and Yellow Springs, Ohio with many more communities trying to protect themselves from the bad STATE laws by this November’s elections.]

Ohio [examples]. Wenger: The same promoters of this amendment have gotten laws passed in a couple of Ohio cities (like Yellow Springs and Mansfield) where there is virtually no oil and gas activity in comparison to what has been occurring in Youngstown.

Anderson: [Mr. Wenger fails to mention Broadview Heights, where in 2012 a Charter Amendment nearly identical to the one proposed for Youngstown was adopted, and where drilling has been going on for a long time.]

[continuing] Wenger:  There has been no review by Ohio courts of this sort of charter amendment or ordinance, though Ohio courts have just again clearly upheld the constitutionality of state laws preempting local city laws regarding oil and gas. It would seem that at least
some major portions of the proposed amendment (those banning oil and gas activities) would be unenforceable, or illegal.

Anderson: [Mr. Wenger fails to consider the possibility of challenging standing law. Law does not change without challenge. In a democracy, challenging existing law is the essence of social advancement. This is something unforeseen and beyond the imagination of predictable and uncreative legal minds, such as the authors’.]

Pittsburgh [example]. Wenger: Proponents often mention that the same law was passed in Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh did pass a law regarding certain oil and gas development, but it was significantly less strident and overreaching compared to Youngstown’s proposed amendment.

Anderson: [Pittsburgh’s council voted Unanimously to BAN FRACKING. In fact, Pittsburgh City Council adopted the first Community Bill of Rights banning gas extraction in 2010, and the Youngstown proposed Charter Amendment is closely modeled upon it. They had a DUMPING of hazardous frack waste into the Monongahela which threatened drinking water and THEIR councilmembers acted WISELY!]

Wenger: But, far more important, Pennsylvania does not have the state preemption laws Ohio has regarding oil and gas development.  Therefore, the Pittsburgh law should not be compared to what is being pushed on Youngstown

Anderson: [This is a simple lie. Pennsylvania adopted it’s “Oil and Gas Act” to preempt any local regulation of oil and gas extraction. However, the Community Bills of Rights, such as those adopted by Pittsburgh and proposed for Youngstown, do not violate such preemptive laws. To protect rights is not the same as regulating oil or gas extraction. To say rights are higher law than oil and gas extraction regulations is not inconsequential. In fact, they are the very point.]

Q. Why is the defeat of this charter amendment so vital for Youngstown?

Wenger: 1. Due to of geology and geography, northeast Ohio has become a focus for Utica shale oil  and gas development. V&M Star has invested over $1 billion in upgrading and adapting facilities, with active involvement of the City of Youngstown, in order to manufacture products for the Utica shale industry, as has Exterran, creating thousands of jobs. Other Youngstown city and area industries have benefited greatly from the new oil and gas opportunities, as have the residents and taxpayers and city government, from the influx of jobs and opportunities. The obvious intention of this amendment is to halt that opportunity, waste benefits to the city, and drive the development to other communities (where it would be welcomed with open arms).

Anderson:  [Making money is the priority. The truth comes to the surface. We don’t want to be the SACRIFICE ZONE so the upper 1% can make massive profits exporting LNG to China. It will cost us our health. From North Dakota with 1,100 spills and dumpings  in 2011 to the huge Sissonville, W. Va. pipeline explosion to the many accidents and blowouts throughout Pennsylvania including methane geysers up old abandoned wells from fracking fissures,  explosions, spills and dumpings (not unlike Lupo’s):  We cannot expend millions of gallons of water per frack, we cannot get cancer from the radioactive flowback water! This is no way to harvest natural gas. We do not want jobs that will kill our neighbors, we will not risk our lives for money.]

[continuing] Wenger: 2. The City of Youngstown and surrounding communities (particularly west into the  Meander Reservoir Watershed area) have for decades and generations been very active with oil and gas drilling. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website interactive maps, there appear to be around 100 permitted oil and gas wells within the limits of the City of Youngstown, and many hundreds more directly to the west of the City of Youngstown (in the Meander Reservoir area). It is highly likely that any of those wells involved in production of oil and gas over the decades has been “fracked,” and many multiple times. Each of the producing wells generates brine that is transported and disposed of. Each well generates oil and gas that needs to be transported. Some of those wells were drilled into shale layers, utilizing drilling technology available at the time. The “fractivists” promoting the charter amendment apparently had no problem with this massive oil and gas development in the City of Youngstown and its surroundings until now.

Anderson: [It is crucial that Youngstown citizens know our Ohio Department of Natural Resources granted a hydrofracturing drilling permit to CNX Gas Co., LLC who has 148 Department of Environmental Penna. VIOLATIONS for accidents, dumping and spills of toxic hazardous fracking waste. Their first vertical drilling (before they drilled 2 more horizontals near Meander Reservoir) caused a 4 foot long split in the casing that Halliburton concreted shut (yes, the DEEP HORIZON OIL SPILL CONCRETE FAILURE company). The MVSD was not notified the well would be drilled in the PROTECTED drinking water area of Meander Watershed, nor were they told October 13, 2012 that the casing FAILED !! Now our county commissioners have sold over 11 millions of gallons of water from the MVSD to help a frack well endanger the drinking water for the City of Youngstown?]
[NOT ACCEPTABLE!]

[continuing] Wenger: The proposed charter amendment would literally make those who own or operate the wells, transport the oil and gas and brine, or in any way facilitate those wells into law breakers and criminals. According to ODNR website information, many of these wells are owned by local Youngstown churches, schools, and non-profit charities.
3. It is unlikely regardless of the charter amendment that there would be much ‘unconventional” large scale horizontal shale oil and gas drilling activity within the City of Youngstown. The multiple-well drilling pads and related activities involved are located away from urban areas or residential concentrations. Most shale gas development, particularly surface activities, would be impossible in Youngstown due to regulations already in place in Ohio. The amendment would likely make very little difference as to actual drilling activity within the city. But, it would make a huge difference in terms of
economic opportunities to the city, and the image that would be portrayed to the nation and the world with Youngstown, a major city in northeast Ohio, refusing to allow, and even criminalizing shale gas development. 

Anderson: [WE THE CITIZENS DECIDE WHAT IS SAFE.
The oil industry has paved the way for a very dangerous process by paying for mineral rights. Go look right behind Bob Evan’s restaurant behind the wood fences on Southern Boulevard in Boardman. How wise will it be to FRACK NEXT TO THE SOUTHERN PARK MALL!? I do not have time to go on and on about the incorrect statements, falsehoods and scare tactics being used by lawyers and officials paid by the oil and gas industry.

My mother always said: “Consider the Source!”, (meaning, look at who is saying what and figure out why they are saying it.)

Attorney Wenger makes a lot of money on mineral rights leases. I am an individual concerned citizen.

I am so very proud of all my brave fellow citizens who are standing up for their inalienable rights against the BIG MONEY OF BIG OIL & GAS CORPORATIONS!

Vote YES for the Community Bill of Rights May 7, 2013 and protect your family’s drinking water, the air we breathe and the land we live on!]

Lynn Anderson  Youngstown, Ohio 44509

READ MORE about the Amendment to the Youngstown City Charter: http://www.youngstownrights.org/