Corbett wasting more $ on fracking appeal, says envi protections must be killed if decision stands

[JPZenger]

http://marcellusmonitor.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/pa-puc-dep-seek-to-overturn-supreme-court-act-13-decision/

Recently, the PA. Supreme Court found that one of Corbett's crowning achievements was unconstitutional. This was Act 13 of 2012, which ordered municipalities to not regulate the fracking industry. For example, municipalities could not keep new wells out of highly residential areas, and had to allow other gas industry facilities in many locations. (It had already established that municipalities could not regulate operational matters that the State already regulated.)

Now, Corbett is using tax dollars to hire an outside law firm to try to convince the Supreme Court they were wrong. These reconsiderations almost always fail - I have only heard of one time it worked, and that was years ago when the Supreme Court did a major screwup on historic preservation. They do churn lots of fees for law firms.

Corbett's filing also says that the Court could not overturn the municipal pre-emption without also eliminating the additional environmental protections that were written into the law. For example, there are larger setbacks for wells from waterways.

Attyn. Gen. Kane was also sued by the municipalities as part of the original challenge, but she declined to defend the limits on municipal regulation of fracking.

What is also interesting is that some of the townships who are most affected by this law and who sued Corbett to overturn it involve very Republican suburbs.

[packman]

1. Greed and money

all those municipalities want their thumbs in the pie. In Pennsylvania you have more divisions of government than existed in any feudal state - towns, municipalities, townships, boroughs, unincorporated areas, etc. Each one with elected officials that are drolling to get into the pot of money with its kickbacks, bribes and payoffs. I can see Corbett wanting to give some sense to this mess, but at the same time he's a tool of the gas industry. Pennsylvania has always had the problem of big industry vs. the locals.

[blue neen]

2. You make a good point.

I also think, though, that municipalities don't want to leave all of the decisions strictly up to the frackers.
That's how Governor Gashole set it up with Act 13...the people being affected the most have the least say-so.

Tom Corbett has been the ruination of Pennsylvania in only 3 short years.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Big business vs. the locals has always been a problem,

but I believe that local control over zoning issues (which is what this is all about) is the best place for it. First, no one cares as much about the town as the people of the town. Certainly Harrisburg could care less. Also, local government officials are people we can talk to, who we can have some influence on. They care about what the people think more than someone who will never even see your town.

Besides, feudal government wasn't much to brag about.

[blue neen]

4. If a township or municipality receives money from impact fees,

Act 13 even goes so far as to restrict what the local governments can spend the money on-----and Republicans are always complaining about government overreach! Priceless, huh?

The fact that Republican Tom Corbett is proud of Act 13 just shows what a loser he really is.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Well, let's hope that he is a loser.

I can't take a second term. Neither can PA.

And as to the Republicans and their lip service to government overreach, that only applies to anything that is good for the people. They don't see it as overreach if it benefits corporations and money-grubbers.