Cecil Township (Washington County, PA) is one of the original seven selfish towns that sued Pennsylvania over the 2012 Act 13 oil and gas law, a law that replaced a mishmash of local zoning ordinances governing oil and gas activity with one uniform, and fair, set of state regulations. Cecil and the other selfish towns won their case on appeal with the PA Supreme Court (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). Although Cecil (and other towns) have been zealous in using their authority to zone out drilling and pipeline activity, sometimes they go too far, as Cecil has done. The PA Commonwealth Court ruled last Friday that Cecil exceeded their authority by “imposing a slew of conditions” (26 conditions!) on a proposed MarkWest Energy compressor station planned for the municipality, a plant first proposed back in 2010…
