ACT Educational and Accountability Event Mon Oct 15th!

Environmental organizations and community groups will hold an event to educate the public on Act 13 prior to this year’s the State Supreme Court’s ruling. Please join us on Monday, October 15, from 6:30-8:30 PM at the Murrysville Community Center, 3091 Carson Avenue. 

Act 13 is Pennsylvania's controversial new oil and gas law, which stripped local governments of their right to plan where natural gas drilling operation can happen in their communities. In July portions of this new law were challenged by local township government officials, a Monroeville doctor, and Delaware Riverkeeper, and overturned by the Commonwealth Court and declared “unconstitutional.”

But the battle continues, as Governor Tom Corbett and his administration appealed the Commonwealth Court decision. These two sides, will argue their cases before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 17th in Pittsburgh.

Many other municipalities and groups have filed amicus briefs in support of the Commonwealth Court’s decision that preemption of local municipal control over shale gas extraction is unconstitutional, including Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association, Pennsylvania State Association of Township Officials, State Association of Boroughs, Pittsburgh City Council, Earth Justice, Murrysville Council and Mountain Watershed Association.

Two days before this historic court hearing, the public is invited to a free, educational discussion about the new law, which covers all aspects of natural gas development in the state, as well as how the law came to be.

The event is hosted by PennEnvironment, Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, Westmoreland Marcellus Citizen Group, Local Authority Western Pennsylvania, Mountain Watershed Association. State Representatives of the 59th, 54th, and 25th districts and candidates for those seats have been invited as well. The question and answer period will be moderated by Wanda Guthrie of Local Authority of Western Pennsylvania and Thomas Merton Center.  An optional phone bank to call state legislators will immediately follow. 

For more information, contact Melissa at Mountain Watershed Association, 724-455-4200 ext. 6# or Melissa@mtwatershed.com.

Opportunity from the EarthQuakers

Join us for the Weekend of October 19-21.
At Merion Friends Meeting (Main Line Philadelphia).
Meals, Housing, Training Provided by Earth Quaker Action Team.

To prepare for a Day of Action
across the PNC Footprint
on December 1st.

Larry Gibson was nationally recognized as an inspirational leader in the movement to stop mountaintop removal. He spent over two decades working to preserve his family’s ancestral land on Kayford Mountain, despite continued harassment, including arson and violence. Larry passed away of a heart attack in early September; he was 66. (Donate to Larry’s Foundation and legacy, the Keepers of the Mountains, here.)

 

Our campaign is called Bank Like Appalachia Matters – and we need YOU to join the fight against mountaintop removal and other forms of extreme extraction, and the banks that finance and profit from these industries.

By the end of the weekend, you will be able to:

• Understand more about what nonviolent direct action is (and is not)
• Develop strategies for applying what you learn
• Describe the dangers and injustices of mountaintop removal and other extreme extraction methods
• Design and build a nonviolent action for your community (with EQAT’s help)
• Build a stronger network of allies in your Quaker meeting and/or home town
• Deepen your spiritual practice and apply it to your activism

REGISTER ONLINE HERE

Or Download the Registration Formto Distribute Widely
Registration Deadline is October 7th.

Space is limited, so Apply today!

More information available from Zach 

201.264.2200