Western Pa. Group Forms to Oppose Zoning Preemption

Local groups wor­ried about the envi­ron­men­tal impact of gas drilling have formed by the dozens across the state. Now there’s a group that will focus specif­i­cally on the pro­posed zon­ing pre­emp­tion lan­guage in the impact fee bill. That pro­posal would restrict local munic­i­pal­i­ties from mak­ing their own zon­ing deci­sions when it comes to gas drilling. Wanda Guthrie, from Mur­raysville, West­more­land County, is a mem­ber of the newly formed Local Author­ity West­ern PA.

“We used to have a drilling prob­lem,” says Guthrie, “now we have a democ­racy problem.”

Guthrie says the group plans to meet tonight to plan their next move. It’s unclear at this point if the impact fee has enough votes to pass, and if the pre­emp­tion lan­guage will con­tinue to be opposed by nine Repub­li­can state Sen­a­tors who last week pledged not to sup­port it.

Local Author­ity West­ern PA sent out a press release announc­ing their for­ma­tion today.

“We elect local offi­cials to main­tain and plan for the wel­fare of our com­mu­ni­ties!” states Ron Slabe, mem­ber of the newly formed coali­tion, Local Author­ity West­ern PA (LAWPA).  Cit­ing the threat to all munic­i­pal­i­ties of  House Bill 1950, the group is herald­ing a warn­ing to both cit­i­zens and leg­is­la­tors. LAWPA and the cit­i­zens it rep­re­sents find their lives neg­a­tively impacted by a gas indus­try unleashed to do any­thing it wants, where ever it wants, with few restrictions.

The group has a new web­site — www.pajustpowers.org.