New PA Marcellus Law Does What Local Towns Wanted All Along

Pennsylvania recently passed new Marcellus Shale drilling regulations (see this MDN story). One of the loudest objections to its adoption is a provision that state law will now mostly override local zoning ordinances designed to regulate and restrict drilling. The cry went up that Harrisburg does not know better than local municipalities where and how to control drilling in their local areas.

But municipalities are finding out the new law does exactly what they wanted to do locally all along—prevent drilling in more urban and sensitive areas. That’s what Etna, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, has discovered.

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