Pennsylvania Township to Voters:Oppose Drilling Ban

摘要

Elected officials from a wealthy Pittsburgh suburb areurging their constituents to vote against a controversial ref-erendum on the Nov. 8 ballot that would ban hydraulic frac-turing (fracking) over fears that its passage would put thesuburb in the crosshairs for lawsuits and undermine its drill-ing ordinance.Peters Township, located on the northern edge of Wash-ington County, PA, is reaching out to voters after a judgedeclined to remove the referendum from the ballot, citing alack of jurisdiction on pre-election challenges without theperception of immediate harm (see NGI, Oct. 10). The town-ship had argued that the referendum was illegal because itviolated the state Oil & Gas Act, the Home Rule and OptionalPlans Law and the township’s planning code (see NGI, Sept.19).