PA’s Supreme Court Orders Up the Impossible re Act 13

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cluelessYesterday MDN reported that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has essentially gutted the rest of the Act 13 drilling law passed in 2012 (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against Act 13 Drilling Law, Yet Again). One of the four provisions in the law eviscerated in the most recently ruling deals with notifications following a spill of chemicals or frack wastewater. The Act 13 law provided for a mechanism (requirement) that local public water drinking systems be notified following a spill. Immediately. But the law did not provide for the same notification to owners of private water wells. Why was that? Was it a sweetheart deal with evil, nasty frackers who don't care if they poison the water wells of nearby residents--interested only in money? Uh, no. The fact is Pennsylvania is one of the few states that does not regulate private water wells, so there is no registry, no way to know WHO to inform in case of a spill. How can you require a company to do something when there is no way to do it? Which raises this question: Do the Democrats on the Supreme Court who made this decision even understand the issue at all? Are they totally clueless?...

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