The American Petroleum Institute Is Working to Kill Voting on Local Measures
Environmental activists gather with puppet signs outside the American Petroleum Institute on September 23, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
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Over the past five years, organizers in seven Ohio communities (three cities, four counties) have qualified ballot measures to recognize enforceable rights of ecosystems and human rights to water. All take the historic and bold step of elevating these basic rights above the legal privileges currently enjoyed by private corporations in the United States.
The local laws seek to halt fracking and accompanying fossil fuel infrastructure projects. So itâs no wonder the American Petroleum Institute (API) â perhaps the most influential fossil fuel lobby in the nation â is getting involved.