Stopping Polluters with Local Ordinances

afford­able, demo­c­ra­t­ic, grass­roots legal solu­tions where the peo­ple pow­er is

We’ve draft­ed the nation’s strongest clean air laws and have helped com­mu­ni­ties used get them adopt­ed at the local gov­ern­ment lev­el to stop pro­posed pol­lut­ing indus­tries.  See our resources below to get a sense of what is pos­si­ble in your state, and con­tact Mike Ewall if you’d like to con­sult with us on using local ordi­nances to stop pol­luters in your community.

Two ways to win…

The two most com­mon ways that grass­roots groups stop pro­posed pol­luters are:

Appeal state per­mits until com­pa­ny gives up and investors walk away	Com­mu­ni­ty gets it stopped through local government
Very expen­sive	More afford­able
High­ly technical	Acces­si­ble
Takes place in dis­tant courtrooms	Takes place in local town hall
Dis­em­pow­er­ing	Empow­er­ing
Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers disengage	Com­mu­ni­ty gets engaged
Plays with­in exist­ing rules that allow pollution	Can write new rules to stop pollution
Does not build power	Builds pow­er for future local victories
Hard to pro­vide this sort of legal sup­port to all the grass­roots groups need­ing it	Eas­i­ly replic­a­ble; can sup­port many grass­roots groups with this strategy

Per­mit appeals rarely actu­al­ly win. It’s the delay that kills projects. As com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers dis­en­gage, expect­ing lawyers to han­dle it, groups often lose their abil­i­ty to fundraise to keep the legal chal­lenge going and then lose altogether.

Local ordi­nance approach­es usu­al­ly win and are more com­pat­i­ble with grass­roots organizing.

Ener­gy Jus­tice Net­work is help­ing com­mu­ni­ties devel­op strict local envi­ron­men­tal ordi­nances that hold up in court and set new stan­dards for how indus­try oper­ates. In Penn­syl­va­nia, three com­mu­ni­ties so far have adopt­ed the nation’s strictest mer­cury and diox­in air pol­lu­tion laws, dis­suad­ing pro­posed pol­luters from locat­ing in those towns. One was chal­lenged and upheld in fed­er­al court.

We’ve mapped out state laws show­ing whether your state allows your local gov­ern­ment to adopt stricter air or waste laws. Many states allow ini­tia­tive process­es in local gov­ern­ments, so you can gath­er sig­na­tures to bring the issue direct­ly to the peo­ple at the bal­lot, if your local offi­cials won’t pass it. Tak­ing things one step fur­ther, we’re work­ing to devel­op local democ­ra­cy ordi­nances to help democ­ra­tize gov­ern­ment from the bot­tom up with clean elec­tions laws.

To see what local ordi­nance options are pos­si­ble in your state, and for help in craft­ing a mod­el ordi­nance for your sit­u­a­tion, con­tact Mike Ewall, Esq. at 215–436-9511.

Stop­ping Pol­luters with Local Ordi­nances Work­shop Materials

• Fly­er
• Pow­er­point (PDF)
• Hand­out
• Overviews of laws in each state, allow­ing local air or waste regulation: 
  • Local Reg­u­la­tion of Air Pol­lut­ing Facilities
  • Local Reg­u­la­tion of Sol­id Waste Dis­pos­al Facilities

Our work in Pennsylvania

• Guide­book to Stop­ping Pol­luters with Local Ordi­nances in Penn­syl­va­nia (First Edi­tion — March 2015)
  
  [con­tains advice use­ful in all states, except where legal infor­ma­tion is PA-specific]
• Clean air ordi­nances adopt­ed by PA com­mu­ni­ties to stop pro­posed crematoria

Local Air Pol­lu­tion Laws Allowed (or not)

Local Munic­i­pal Sol­id Waste Laws Allowed (or not)

Green = Local laws allowed
Red = Local laws preempted
Yel­low = In-between (allowed only in cer­tain areas, for cer­tain things, or sub­ject to state approval)
Blue = Local air reg­u­la­tion pro­grams allowed

Local Ini­tia­tive and Ref­er­en­dum Laws
(click map to vis­it Ballotpedia.org site to learn more about whether ini­tia­tive process­es are autho­rized in your state/community)