There is new hope for Youngstown, Ohio, one of the major hubs of the depleted U.S. steel industry. Despite the hardships that have plagued the region for decades, Northeastern Ohio has hope for revitalization in the fracking industry. Thousands of jobs have been created in the steel mills seeking to build the requisite pipelines for extracting natural gas as well as for small-businesses, hotels, and restaurants.
However, for the past few years, leftists have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a campaign to stop the fracking industry in its tracks and targeted Youngstown to send that message.
A Pennsylvania-based organization called the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) has collected the requisite number of signatures on a petition calling for a ballot on whether to ban fracking in the region due to its environmental impact. They sought to pass something called the “Community Bill of Rights” (read full text below). This ballot measure has appeared six times since 2013 and it has failed all six times. However, since Ohio requires that any petition that acquires a certain amount of signatures must be included in a ballot, Youngstown has spent $187,219 in taxpayer dollars to put this initiative on the ballot.
While there is no fracking occurring in Youngstown proper, leftists continue to target the industrial city to send a message that whatever actions it takes to better its community is not as important as virtue-signaling about protecting the environment.
Leftists have a long history of pretending to care about the lives of the downtrodden while proactively working against their interests. Just as Black Lives Matter claims to care about black Americans while ignoring the disturbing percentage of black-on-black homicide, environmentalists claim to help move the United States to better self-sufficiency and economic prosperity while attempting to destroy the very industries that would help blue-collar America gain better jobs and higher wages. The majority of citizens in Youngstown have had their voice heard on six different occasions, and they have weighed the economic benefit over the supposed environmental impact.
Here is the full text of the anti-fracking “Community Bill of Rights“:
Section 122-1
The rights enumerated herein are in addition to and shall not limit or abridge other rights retained by the people, whether or not enumerated in law. These enumerated rights are protected by specific prohibitions included in this Charter Section and any additional such protections amended to this Charter from time to time.
A. Right to Pure Water.
All residents, natural communities and ecosystems in The City of Youngstown possess a fundamental and inalienable right to sustainably access, use, consume, and preserve water drawn from natural water cycles that provide water necessary to sustain life within the City.
B. Right to Clean Air.
All residents, natural communities and ecosystems in The City of Youngstown possess a fundamental and inalienable right to breathe air untainted by toxins, carcinogens, particulates and other substances known to cause harm to health.
C. Right to Peaceful Enjoyment of Home.
Residents of The City of Youngstown possess a fundamental and inalienable right to the peaceful enjoyment of their homes, free from interference, intrusion, nuisances or impediments to access and occupation.
D. Right to be Free from Toxic Trespass.
All residents, natural communities and ecosystems in Youngstown possess a fundamental and inalienable right to be free from toxic trespass and to be free from unwanted invasions of their bodies by any means, including but not limited to, trespass by manufactured chemicals, toxins, pathogens, or radioactive substances and their progeny.
E. Rights of Natural Communities.
Natural communities and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, wetlands, streams, rivers, aquifers, and other water systems possess inalienable and fundamental rights to exist and flourish within The City of Youngstown. Residents of the City shall possess legal standing to enforce those rights on behalf of those natural communities and ecosystems.
F. Right to a Sustainable Energy Future.
All residents in The City of Youngstown possess a right to a sustainable energy future, which includes, but is not limited to, the development, production, and use of energy from renewable and sustainable fuel sources.
G. Right to Local Community Self-Government.
All residents of The City of Youngstown possess the fundamental and inalienable right to a form of governance where they live which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate entities and their directors and managers shall not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law which make community majorities subordinate to them.
H. People as Sovereign.
The City of Youngstown shall be the governing authority responsible to, and governed by, the residents of the City. Use of the“City of Youngstown” municipal corporation by the sovereign people of the City to make law shall not be construed to limit or surrender the sovereign authority or immunities of the people to a municipal corporation that is subordinate to them in all respects at all times. The people at all times enjoy and retain an inalienable and indefeasible right to self-governance in the community where they reside.Section 122-2 Rights as Self-Executing. All rights delineated and secured by this Charter shall be self-executing and these rights shall be enforceable against private and public entities.