Man, this stuff pisses me off:
What started as a short YouTube video and a couple of local news interviews about a Texas landowner being able to light his water on fire has ballooned into a free speech fight that’s being closely watched by anti-fracking activists across the country.
Steve Lipsky has complained for years that fracking company Range Resources polluted his drinking water and streams that run through his property. The company sued him in 2011 for defaming its reputation for environmental stewardship.
Now Lipsky will have a chance to argue his case in front of the Texas Supreme Court, The Texas Tribune reported this week. The court will decide whether his right to free speech renders Range’s defamation case moot. If the court rules in his favor, the company’s lawsuit will be thrown out. If that doesn’t happen, he may be on the hook for $3 million.
The case won’t be heard until December, but environmentalists are already drawing parallels between it and other incidents across the U.S. in which hydraulic fracturing companies and anti-fracking activists have butted heads. Lipsky’s supporters say his case adds to a growing list of instances that show governments and courts are too quick to kowtow to industry demands. But if he wins, they say, it could embolden the anti-fracking movement across the country by letting activists know they’re free to badmouth fracking companies without fear of retribution.
“Range has a right to protect its reputation, but the speech they’re complaining about is protected speech,” Lipsky’s lawyer Joe Sibley said. “If we’re going to allow companies to sue people for defamation every time they don’t like what’s being said, then that basically allows corporations to silence public participation.”
If you have enough money you can make the law. And anyway corporations are people too. On the bright side, some scientists in Europe have figured out a way to make natural gas from bacteria. In this case from e-coli. The fracking industry is doomed.
Why is this even being litigated? Wasn’t this decided years (decades?) ago, the last time corps tried to use the law to shut down protests? What was it called, SLAPP suits? Anit-SLAPP suits? Something. I guess since I and probably most people have forgotten, the corps(e)s figure they can try the same game again. They really are like zombies.
“If at first you don’t succeed………” because the American people have a really short memory. Which is why they keep electing warmongers and thieves to political office. “What use is wisdom when folly reigns?” Yiddish Proverbs by H.J. Ayalti
Yea, but we got a corporate loving US Supreme Court, where I’m sure this will wind up.
Texas . . . need we say more? One is not hopeful.