On Oct. 8, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. Although the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) represents PA’s conventional (non-shale) drillers, [Correction: PIOGA represents BOTH conventional AND unconventional (shale) drillers] they immediately filed an appeal of the new regs with the PA Supreme Court (see PIOGA Makes Legal Play to Stop Chapter 78a Regs from Taking Effect). The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), which represents shale drillers–the group affected by Chapter 78a–has made noise about the new regs, but hasn’t done anything to stop the regs–until now. Yesterday the MSC filed its own lawsuit to block the new regs [Note: we now have a copy of the lawsuit, see it below]. The MSC’s lawsuit was filed in PA Commonwealth Court…
