News

This year has marks another election season of failure for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and their local control initiatives. Recently, Ohio’s Secretary of State John Husted ruled that the countywide so-called Community Bill of Rights fracking bans are “invalid” and therefore will not be moving forward to the ballot box in November. This decision came after local county board of elections, the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, Affiliated Construction Trades of Ohio and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce all spoke out against these measures due to the harm they would impose on Ohio communities.

Ohio isn’t alone. Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams just announced that anti-fracking local control ballot measures will not be placed on Colorado’s statewide November ballot, as activists failed to obtain the necessary valid signatures. In fact, Colorado’s election chief said their petition processing team “identified a petition section that contains several potentially forged signature lines.” Sound familiar? It should— because the same thing happened in Columbus, Ohio just last year when the so-called “Community Bill of Rights” in the City of Columbus failed, as activist groups submitted thousands of invalid signatures.

As a result of this chain of events, EID decided to take a look at just how badly CELDF and others have abused communities with their tricks, and consequently how many times local citizens have rejected their ideologies. We found that, believe it or not, Ohio has been a top target over the years.

CELDF has attempted at least 29 local control measu...