Philadelphia City Council Wants to Delay Drilling Near Delaware River

Philadelphia City Council members want the city to join environmentalists and the New York Attorney General’s office in suing the federal government to stop fracking. In May, the New York A.G.’s office filed suit against the Delaware River Basin Commission. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the DRBC from implementing any new gas drilling rules without doing an environmental impact study first. In August, several environmental groups filed a similar suit.
On Thursday, City Council unanimously passed a non-binding resolution asking the city’s law department to file a “friend of the court” brief in support of a continued moratorium. It’s unclear whether Philadelphia’s law department will act on the resolution. The DRBC has a temporary moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin until new regulations are approved. The Commission is scheduled to take up those proposed rules at a meeting in November.

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