On October 26, 2015,
Grant Township filed a Motion for Reconsideration asking the U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to reexamine its recent ruling
invalidating Grant Township’s Community Bill of Rights Ordinance, which
prohibits oil and gas waste disposal within the township’s borders.
In August 2014, the
Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) sued Grant Township claiming that
adoption of the Community Bill of Rights Ordinance would impair its business
continuity by requiring the company to find alternative wastewater treatment
options. On October 14, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Western District
of Pennsylvania concluded that the Ordinance was invalid and declared that
Grant Township failed to properly apply relevant case precedent in support of
its arguments.
Grant Township
requested the U.S. District Court to reconsider its decision on the grounds
that the court erred in addressing two issues “as to whether . . . there is an
inalienable and constitutional right of local community self-government; and .
. . whether the people properly exercised that self-governing authority in
passing the Community Bill of Rights Ordinance. Grant Township also alleged
that the U.S. District Court should have ruled “upon whether the Environmental
Rights Amendment is an independent legal basis for the Community Bill of Rights
Ordinance.”
Further information on
this case is available at docket no. 1:14-cv-00209.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
11/09/2015
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