Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Real Estate Law Blog

Hydraulic fracturing, as our readers known, is a drilling process in which water, sand and chemicals are blasted underground to break apart rock and free up trapped natural gas. The process has brought about a surge in energy production to Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado, and lowered natural gas costs.

Our readers may be aware of the challenge currently before the state Supreme Court regarding natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. The decision involves the legality of Act 13, which has become controversial for several of its provisions. Perhaps the most controversial provision of the law is that which removes the ability of local zoning boards to make any decisions about drilling.

In our previous post, we noted that a Pennsylvania intermediate appeals court ruled that major provisions of the state’s new “fracking” law are unconstitutional. The specific provisions targeted by the court were those overriding local zoning environmental laws. These were among the most contentious of the law’s provisions. These provisions were overturned 4-3.

Our regular readers know that we’ve written previously about Pennsylvania’s controversial “fracking” law, Act 13. As we’ve noted, the law was heavily pushed by Governor Corbett in order to attract gas drilling to the state and create jobs. One of the most contentious aspects of the law is that it took zoning control out of the hands of municipalities.

We have previous written about a bill-now law-that imposes a local impact fee on natural gas drillers across Pennsylvania. The law has caused a lot of controversy over its zoning provision, which effectively stripped the ability of local governments to control zoning of drilling. The law is, as we’ve noted, a response to the growing natural gas industry in Pennsylvania, which many see as in need of revitalization.

On Monday, the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, as well as the group Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy put on a conference with the goal of establishing a consortium dedicated to collecting and analyzing scientific data on the effects of shale gas development on the public.