7 towns file suit against Pa. gas-drilling law

HARRISBURG - Seven municipalities that banded together in recent weeks to oppose Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale gas-drilling law filed a suit Thursday, challenging whether the state is authorized to supersede local regulation of drilling.

The municipalities are Yardley and Nockamixon in Bucks County and five southwestern Pennsylvania towns. They were joined in the suit by a Monroeville doctor, environmental activists from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and a handful of municipal officials contesting the law in their personal capacities.

The 117-page suit, filed in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg, names as defendants Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer, Attorney General Linda Kelly, and Robert Powelson, who chairs the Public Utility Commission.

The bill Gov. Corbett signed into law on Feb. 14 tasks Powelson and other PUC officials with determining whether local ordinances governing natural-gas drilling fit into the allowable parameters laid out in the new law.

Along with imposing a fee on gas extraction, the law sets statewide standards for such issues as where wells can be drilled. It allows drillers to challenge any local ordinances that are more stringent than the state standard.

The suit argues that standardizing zoning rules for gas drilling is "an improper and arbitrary use of the commonwealth's police power." The municipal officials contended they "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," the suit said.

"However, it did so at the expense of the predictability afforded to petitioners and the citizens of Pennsylvania whose health, safety and welfare, community development objectives, zoning districts, and concerns regarding property values were pushed aside to elevate the interests of out-of-state oil and gas companies."

The suit also contended that in two recent cases, state appellate courts said the state's interest in "efficient production and utilization of natural resources" must be balanced against local communities' concerns about "land-use control."

A spokesman for Corbett, Eric Shirk, told the Associated Press the Governor's Office hadn't yet seen the lawsuit. But Shirk said the shale bill's negotiators had worked closely with associations that represent local governments, including the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, and he said the administration was confident the law would hold up in court.

Canonsburg lawyer John Smith, who represents the Western Pennsylvania towns of Cecil and Robinson in the suit, said the group sought an injunction to stop the statute from going into effect on April 14. If an injunction is not issued, he said, they will ask for an expedited hearing to give clarity to the municipalities that will need to undo their ordinances.