Municipalities file lawsuit against new shale drilling law

Municipalities file lawsuit against new shale drilling law by Laura Olson, March 29, 2012, Post-Gazette
Seven municipalities that banded together in recent weeks in opposition to state’s Marcellus Shale gas drilling law filed a suit this afternoon challenging whether the state was authorized to supersede local regulation of gas drilling. … The suing municipalities argue that standardizing zoning rules for gas drilling is “an improper and arbitrary use of the commonwealth’s police power.” They state in the legal document that towns “will be left to plan around rather than plan for orderly growth” in their communities. “By crafting a single set of statewide zoning rules applicable to oil and gas drilling throughout the commonwealth, the Pennsylvania General Assembly provided much sought-after predictability for the oil and gas development industry,” states the lawsuit.