Act 13 was, without a
doubt, an incredible overreach and giveaway to the gas drilling industry. Supportive legislators are quick to
acknowledge that the industry helped them write the legislation – no wonder it
so wildly supported industrial goals – displacing local zoning and providing automatic
waivers for the minimal environmental protections, are among the many giveaways
the law provided.
While for years the
environmental community has looked to the promise of Pennsylvania’s
constitution and its promise of “pure water”, “clean air” and “preservation of
the natural … environment” the fulfillment of that promise has always remained
unfulfilled by our legislature and the courts.
So much so that when the Delaware Riverkeeper Network included it as a
cornerstone of our attack on Act 13 in our recently won legal action many in
the community derided us as wasting our limited legal briefing space.
The Pennsylvania Supreme
Court’s December 18, 2013 decision vindicated the importance and power of the Environmental
Rights Amendment of the Pennsylvania Constitution; it promised all generations
of Pennsylvanians that they will benefit from pure water, clean air and a
healthy environment, giving them the ability to defend that right in the courts
if it is violated.
The power of the Supreme
Court opinion should extend far beyond the issue of shale gas development and the
boundaries of Pennsylvania.
- The decision promises present and future generations a healthy
environment:
ø
"[T]he Supreme Court has done the commonwealth a
great service by reinvigorating the environmental protections that are wisely
enshrined in the Pennsylvania Constitution." - Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial, "Tapping Breaks on Gas Giveaways" 12/26/2013;
- The decision obligates the government (local and state) to honor
the social contract embodied in Article 1, Section 27 of the PA
Constitution that promises clean air, pure water, preservation of natural,
scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment, and that commits
to protect public natural resources for present and future generations.
- The decision restores the right of local communities to better
protect their local, natural and historic resources, when the state
government fails to do enough.
Rather than recognize
that the state Supreme Court rendered a sound, solid, protective and honorable
decision worthy of the historic stature it has been given (“This may one day be seen as the most important environmental decision
ever written by an American jurist”, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Op Ed by Bruce Ledewitz,
December 26, 2013) )
the Corbett Administration and the PA DEP head,
Chris Abruzzo, are wasting more time, money and resources to try to revive and
defend Act 13. By filing their
insulting request for reconsideration to the Court, not only are Corbett and
Abruzzo wasting resources, but they are bringing shame upon their own heads
defending an unconstitutional law designed only to benefit an industry seeking
to make big profits on the backs of Pennsylvania’s people and environment.
The Supreme Court decision
should and will inspire a new generation of environmental protection in
Pennsylvania – inspiring strong legislation by newly emboldened and empowered
legislators, and supporting strong litigation when industry dollars are used to
drive bad legislation and bad political acts.
But it should also inspire
other states, and even the federal government, to construct their own social
contracts promising pure water, clean air and healthy environments for present
and future generations. As Chief Justice
Castille so eloquently described, Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment
was inspired and overwhelmingly supported in the wake of, and in response to,
the environmental devastation of the coal industry and others.
Let’s use the wisdom of
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices to inspire protection that will span
the nation and span the generations.
Article 1, Section 27 of
the Pennsylvania Constitution promises:
“…a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the
natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.
Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the
people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the
Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the
people.”
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