Regulation

The decision in December by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that essentially guts large portions of the Act 13 Marcellus drilling legislation that all of a sudden anti-drillers have started calling Gov. Tom Corbetts “signature legislation” (funny how they never called it that prior to the ruling in December), continues to stir controversy. Gov. Corbett’s administration has filed a motion with the court to have it reconsider parts of their decision and in the meantime has asked drillers to voluntarily obey certain provisions in the law, like drilling at least 300 feet away from certain areas (see Gov Corbett Requests Drillers Continue to Honor Act 13 Setbacks).

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article yesterday with more analysis of the decision and its repercussions. Interestingly, they either mistakenly, or more likely intentionally, ran a huge picture over the article of what appears to be a large crowd of protesters outside of the Philly Convention Center and identified the picture as being from a protest rally “last year.” It was not. How do we know? MDN editor Jim Willis was there–at the Shale Insight event–and there were no protests last year. There were perhaps a half dozen people standing around with signs at one point. The protest rally in the picture was from two years ago (Jim attended the Shale Insight event two years ago too)–which tells you something. The Marcellus protest movement in PA is losing steam–but it seems the Philly Inquirer editors are happy to lie to support their narrative…
Read More “Philly Inquirer Misidentifies Photo in Act 13 Article”

One of the unintended consequences of the recent PA Supreme Court ruling that struck down zoning provisions in PA’s Act 13 law is to weaken environmental protections–specially the distance away from rivers, streams, wells and other bodies of water that drillers sink a well. Act 13 provided for a minimum 300 foot “setback” from water sources, but that’s now out the window after the Court’s decision (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). PA Gov. Tom Corbett yesterday issued a call/challenge/request/plea to the drilling industry to maintain the setback standard in their drilling practices. The industry, via various representative organizations like the Marcellus Shale Coalition, has already responded that indeed they will continue to honor the setback provisions–even though the high court tossed them out. Which is just more evidence of responsible people working together responsibly to safely drill for natural gas and oil in PA. Even when the courts screw it up.

Here’s Gov. Corbett’s request, and the response by the drilling industry:
Read More “Gov Corbett Requests Drillers Continue to Honor Act 13 Setbacks”

The decision of the PA Supreme Court to invalidate large portions of the 2012 Act 13 Marcellus drilling law, particularly those portions dealing with zoning, have left much of the law–perhaps the entire law–in doubt. The court’s decision was like an explosion, and we’re just now seeing the mushroom cloud but haven’t felt the fallout just yet. Did the Supremes just destroy shale drilling in PA? Is their decision really no big deal? It all depends on whom you ask.

One thing that appears to be in jeopardy is the impact fee/tax that’s already raised over $400 million in the last two years. A lot of that fee gets distributed to the places impacted by drilling, hence its name. It’s a sensible fee notwithstanding our objection that 40% of it goes to politicians to spend in non-drilling parts of the state. However, high court’s decision throws the future of the impact fee into doubt. Last week Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision and further clarify some issues in hopes the impact fee (among other things) can be retained…
Read More “PA’s Impact Fee in Jeopardy from Supreme Court’s Act 13 Decision”