Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Real Estate Law Blog

On Thursday, the Philadelphia City Council approved a resolution opposing Philadelphia’s natural-gas drilling law, which was passed earlier this year. That law, as our readers know, superseded local zoning controls. The resolution, which has been endorsed by anti-drilling activists, supports a recent decision by the Commonwealth Court that overturned the section of the law which restricts municipalities’ ability to zone for oil and gas drilling.

Pennsylvania lawmakers recently passed a moratorium on natural gas drilling in the South Newark Basin, a rock formation located in Bucks, Chester, Berks and Montgomery counties. Senator Charles McIlhinney, R-Bucks, was the primary supporter of the moratorium. According to McIlhinney, the moratorium was based on a new scientific study showing the potential of natural gas in the South Newark Basin, highlighting the need to find out where it is and how much is there before drilling.

A business owner recently sued the City of Camden, its zoning officer and the Zoning Board of Adjustments after having his application to use his buildings for the production of medical marijuana. The buildings, which are reportedly vacant, are located near Campbell Soup Co. headquarters and the Cooper University Hospital in Camden. One of the buildings, a vacant Sears store, was recently sold.

Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon announced last month that the financially strapped energy company plans to pick itself back up by drilling more wells on Marcellus Shale real estate. According to McClendon, the center of the activity would be the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, as well as regions in Ohio and West Virginia where wells can extract liquid gases like ethane and propane, which are worth higher prices nowadays.

In our previous post, we mentioned that Chesapeake Energy Company will soon be pursuing a new policy of increased natural gas drilling on Marcellus Shale real estate. The Marcellus shale, as our readers may know, is the largest of several shale formations that have become sites for oil and gas production in recent years following upon advanced techniques in hydraulic-fracturing.

Last Thursday, seven Pennsylvania municipalities filed suit against the state of Pennsylvania over the new natural gas law, which effectively removed the ability of city governments to regulate natural gas drilling. The lawsuit alleges that the state unconstitutionally removed the power of towns and landowners to control zoning to suit the need of the oil and gas industry.

In our previous post, we noted that seven municipalities have filed suit against the state of Pennsylvania over a law passed earlier this year which grants drilling companies broad ability to continue with drilling activities. The law, as we said, has been somewhat polarizing between those who say it is necessary to support the growing drilling industry and those who decry the removal of municipalities’ ability to place restrictions on drilling activity.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Thursday that, after three years of debate and false starts on a plan to impose a local impact fee on natural gas drillers, the state is close to approving a measure. On Wednesday, the state House voted 101-90 to approve a compromise plan on the impact fee. Senate has already approved the measure, and now it goes to Governor Corbett, who has said he will sign it.

On Tuesday, environmental groups met in Harrisburg to speak out against legislation that would remove zoning authority from local municipalities with respect to natural gas drilling. We have previously written about the legislation on this blog.

We recently wrote about a new Pennsylvania law updating the state’s old Oil and Gas Act which may end up restricting municipalities from zoning and regulating hydraulic fracturing, popularly known as “fracking.” As we noted, hydraulic fracturing is a process used to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas or other underground substances for extraction.