PA Towns Banding Together to Sue State Over New Drilling Law

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Last month’s passage of new Marcellus drilling regulations in Pennsylvania has some local municipalities grumbling that the state’s “Act 13” regulating oil and gas drilling and superseding local zoning ordinances takes away their ability to, yes, control drilling in their local municipalities. Which of course is what the law is designed to do!

Several municipalities, Cecil Township the latest, are making moves to band together and sue the state over the new law in an effort to overturn the Act 13 provision.

Cecil Township has joined a handful of other Washington County municipalities considering legal action against the state’s new law regulating oil and gas drilling.

Supervisors voted Monday 4-1 to authorize township solicitor John Smith to investigate banding together with other municipalities to challenge the law. They’ll be joining Mt. Pleasant, Robinson, Peters and South Strabane townships.

Supervisor Elizabeth Cowden cast the dissenting vote; she argued the township would almost certainly lose any legal fight and incur a hefty legal bill while trying.*

*Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter (Mar 6, 2012) – Cecil joins neighbors in gas law opposition

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