Did Food & Water Watch Just Abandon This Pennsylvania Town?

** “It is imperative that we have a strong and unified base as we take this battle on and work to succeed.” Bill Peduto

Public protest of a natural gas fired power plant proposal in Elizabeth, Township Pa. © Joshua B. Pribanic for INVISIBLE HAND

To those with the fire,
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This is an advisory for anyone supporting Food & Water Watch and the fight on fracking in Pennsylvania. Food & Water Watch Pennsylvania Director Sam Bernhardt with support of Megan McDonough, Food & Water Watch’s Municipal Ordinance Project Organizer, have responded to INVISIBLE HAND’s call to action letter for Elizabeth Township saying FWW will not stand by their fight against fracking. Why? Read for yourself:

Hey Josh-

We’re not going to promote this event (https://www.invisiblehandfilm.com/tickets/) . Here’s some context explaining why.

As you probably know, residents stopped the plant several times using zoning. We wanted to work with folks to use zoning to stop the most recent iteration of the threat, but they opted to work with CELDF on a community rights ordinance. … All that goes to say we don’t believe in the strategy residents seem to have decided to pursue. We’re not going to dissuade them from doing that but we’re not going to support a strategy that we don’t agree with. … And please know we are extremely biased in favor of strategies that will create substantive change in people’s lives. ~ Sam Bernhardt

Their response is alarming to hear as someone who’s witnessed community after community exhaust resources on zoning and ordinance measures only to have them thrown aside at the last minute by an industrial coup. Coincidentally, Elizabeth Township had the majority support of their zoning board for four years, fending off the power plant at every turn, but in the end they lost — zoning alone wasn’t enough.

Throughout the past 8 years of documenting and reporting for Public Herald we covered those without zoning, those with zoning and those leveraging home rule charters. In all that time, only Grant Township, Pennsylvania has been able to beat the odds and prevent an oil and gas permit from breaking ground. I know of no other town who’s action shook the state to its core with such force that DEP sued the people of that community. I believe DEP has shot themselves in the foot with this and will have to testify to their ability in court, leaving Grant the chance to showcase their failure of duty on the stand. This is a big reason their story is featured in INVISIBLE HAND.

Electing local leaders, no matter what position, is only as powerful as the local government — and in Pennsylvania you do not have a powerful local government without home rule. As Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto put it in 2010 when facing fracking in the city, Food and Water is fighting a “losing battle”:

“The mission of the attorneys is not to try to minimize impact through zoning laws — that is a losing battle. The idea is to establish municipal authority and rights. [CELDF is] working with 120 local governments in PA presently and although controversial — it would be our only chance to prohibit gas drilling in Pittsburgh. The mission of this group is to create a unique way to stop all drilling within the city’s borders — nothing short. If anyone disagrees with this approach — and it is OK to disagree — please let me know now. It is imperative that we have a strong and unified base as we take this battle on and work to succeed.”

With a home rule charter you can “establish municipal authority and rights,” — without it you’re weak on all sides. Yet, knowing this, Food & Water has decided they will not stand with Elizabeth, or for that matter stand with Grant Township. A quick search on their website couldn’t produce a single article or call to action on behalf of Grant.

Grant township is in the middle of possibly the most important case in Pennsylvania history for the environment and they’re being treated by green organizations like outcasts simply because they’ve made a choice that doesn’t fit into the funding pattern of those groups. This cannot stand.

At this stage in the game there’s no time left for this type of exclusion. Please consider any action you feel necessary to express your concerns to Food & Water Watch. I will be pulling all of our support for their work until this is corrected and they embrace Elizabeth’s right to make their own decision; especially one as sound as home rule.

Don’t let Food & Water stop you from taking action and standing with those who do! Join us in Elizabeth tonight, meet the Grant Township officials, and stand with PET for the screening of INVISIBLE HAND — 7pm at the Grand Theatre. Let them know you support their decision to continue this fight.

In Solidarity,
Director Joshua B. Pribanic