The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : CELDF Press Release: Residents of Plymouth, New Hampshire Vote to Ban Land Acquisition for Northern Pass

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : CELDF Press Release: Residents of Plymouth, New Hampshire Vote to Ban Land Acquisition for Northern Pass

by CELDF
March 17th, 2012

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Pennsylvania Community Rights Network
P.O. Box 360 Mercersburg, PA  17236
www.celdf.org

For a pdf version, click here.

MEDIA RELEASE

CONTACT: Gail Darrell, CELDF
gail@celdf.org

March 17th, 2012

Residents of Plymouth, New Hampshire Vote to Ban Land Acquisition for Northern Pass
Ordinances Banning "Land Acquisition for the Construction of Unsustainable Energy Systems" put future energy projects under Community Control and prohibited the Taking of Land from Residents and the Despoiling of the Environment to Benefit Corporations

“The Ordinance passed!” exclaimed Peter Martin, resident of Plymouth, New Hampshire. The vote followed a several month long campaign to educate residents and elected officials who live in the college town, nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains. ”We are very relieved and extremely pleased, that Plymouth has joined the towns of Easton and Sugar Hill in adopting a Community Bill of Rights Ordinance.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 (Saturday, March 17, 2012-  Plymouth, NH)  A local law to establish a Bill of Rights which recognizes and secures the civil and political rights of residents, known as the Town of Plymouth 's Right to A Sustainable Energy Future and Community Self-Government Ordinance, was enacted tonight by the majority of voters at their annual Town Meeting. The rights-based Ordinance bans land acquisition necessary for the construction or siting of unsustainable energy systems by corporations - activities that would violate the community Bill of Rights.

The local law states:
The Ordinance shall apply to any and all commercial production, distribution, transportation, or transmission of energy that would violate this Ordinance... and will become law within five (5) days of enactment.
The rights-based Ordinance was placed onto the warrant by collecting signatures of registered voters on a petition and submitting that petition to town officials to be placed onto the Town Meeting Warrant (ballot). The voters overwhelmingly approved the warrant article 75:42.
The local law supports the idea that residents are best qualified to design an energy policy that addresses the needs and specific environmental concerns of the community, with the following language:

Section 3- Statements of Law – Rights of Residents and the Natural Environment
(a) Right to a Sustainable Energy Future. The residents of Plymouth have a right to a sustainable energy future in which energy decisions are made by the community, and in which fuel sources used to generate energy are renewable and sustainable.

And...

Section 6 – Sustainable Energy Policy
The Town shall implement a Sustainable Energy Policy following the adoption of this Ordinance that provides a plan for the community’s reduction in use of power from unsustainable energy systems, within a time frame agreed to by the residents, to be decided by popular vote.

This Rights-Based Ordinance subordinates the legally bestowed privileges of corporations to the inalienable, indefeasible rights of people and living systems and recognizes and secures a right to preserve the aesthetic values of the town.
To clarify the supremacy of rights-as-law over corporate privilege and over state authority to license corporations to violate rights and empower them to act “legally” against the consent of the governed, the Right to A Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance asserts that:
(d) No permit, license, privilege, eminent domain authority, or charter issued by any State or federal agency, Commission or Board to any person or any corporation operating under a State charter, or any director, officer, owner, or manager of a corporation operating under a State charter, which would violate the prohibitions of this Ordinance or deprive any Town resident(s), natural community, or ecosystem of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by this Ordinance, the New Hampshire Constitution, the United States Constitution, or other laws, shall be deemed valid within the Town of Plymouth.

The ordinance was drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund at the invitation of community residents. Gail Darrell, Community Organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said she applauds the residents of Plymouth in the assertion of their right to local self-government and self-determination and the support from elected officials who stood with their constituents.
Darrell further commented that, "It is good to know that our state motto, 'live free or die' is more than an old quote; it represents the spirit of New Hampshire and the integrity of our people to take a stand against threatened, corporate trammels of this lovely landscape and of the rights of citizens."
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, located in Mercersburg, PA, has been working with people in Pennsylvania since 1995 and people in New Hampshire since 2006, to assert their fundamental rights to democratic local self-governance, and to enact laws which end destructive and rights-denying corporate action aided and abetted by state and federal governments.