House Committee Will Vote Tomorrow On Bill "Superseding And Preempting" All Local Drilling Ordinances

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

November 1, 2011 | 6:58 PM

Tomorrow morning, the House Finance Committee will vote on a Marcellus Shale impact fee bill. (That’s according to the Post-Gazette’s Laura Olson, who initially tweeted the news.)
Update: For a more detailed look at the new measure, click here.
One major difference between this measure and the proposal Senate leaders have been working on is the following section, which negates all local drilling ordinances. “All local rules, regulation, code, agreement, resolution, ordinance or other local enactments that regulate oil and gas operations are hereby superseded and preempted,” the language reads.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai says the provision comes straight from Governor Corbett’s office.
Read the full provision, which can be found on page 122 of House Bill 1950, after the jump.

From House Bill 1950:

§ 3272. Local ordinances.
(a) General rule.‑‑Except as provided under subsection (b), this chapter and any other environmental law are of Statewide concern and occupy the entire field of regulation regarding oil and gas operations, to the exclusion of all local rules, regulations, codes, agreements, resolutions, ordinances and other local enactments. No local rule, regulation, code, agreement, resolution, ordinance or other local enactment of any municipality may regulate oil and gas operations. All local rules, regulations, codes, agreements, resolutions, ordinances and other local enactments that regulate oil and gas operations are hereby superseded and preempted.
(b) Exception.‑‑Subsection (a) shall not apply to ordinances adopted under the act of October 4, 1978 (P.L.851, No.166), known as the Flood Plain Management Act.
§ 3273. Effect on department authority.
This chapter does not affect, limit or impair any right or authority of the department under the act of June 22, 1937 (P.L.1987, No.394), known as The Clean Streams Law; the act of January 8, 1960 (1959 P.L.2119, No.787), known as the Air Pollution Control Act; the act of November 26, 1978 (P.L.1375, No.325), known as the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act; or the act of July 7, 1980 (P.L.380, No.97), known as the Solid Waste Management Act.