Cecil Twp Hellbent to Ban New Shale Drilling via 2,500-Ft Setback

The Board of Supervisors for Cecil Township in Washington County, PA, caved to pressure from radical leftists and, by a vote of 3-2, instructed the town's solicitor to prepare a new zoning ordinance that increases setbacks from “protected structures” from 500 feet to 2,500 feet (a half a mile!), and add a setback of 5,000 feet from schools and hospitals (almost a full mile!). It is a ban on new shale drilling in the township, plain and simple. In May, the supervisors favored a setback of 1,500 feet, which is still too far and onerous, but not an outright ban like 2,500 feet (see Cecil Twp Board Considers Revising Drilling Setbacks to 1,500 Feet). Something happened to tip three of the supervisors into open hostility against the Marcellus industry. We wonder what it was.

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