Client Advisory Archive
Associated Press Interviews Saunders for Article “Fight Possible Over Pennsylvania Drilling Rules on Zoning”
After nearly two years of discussion and debate, Pennsylvania’s legislature adopted and Governor Corbett has signed into law “Act 13” of 2012 which amends the Oil & Gas Act to impose a host of environmentally-based requirements on the conduct of oil and gas development activities. The new law also limits municipal authority to enact zoning ordinances regulating drilling activities and imposes an impact fee to be assessed on wells drilled in Pennsylvania. Steve Saunders was interviewed by the Associated Press for an article that focused attention on Act 13’s zoning restrictions and impact fee and the mixed reaction these aspects of the new law are receiving from local governments across the Commonwealth. He supplied background information and was asked to comment on the prospect of legal challenges to the law by municipal governments opposed to the requirement to adopt “model” language limiting the reach of zoning ordinances in order to receive a portion of the impact fees generated by operators within their communities. Saunders addressed attendees last November at the 2011 Marcellus Summit on the status of separate bills making their way through the House and Senate at that time which with some modification were embodied in Act 13. The AP story was picked up by over 200 media outlets (newspaper, tv and radio) across the U.S. A link to the article as carried in the online version of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review can be found here.