Read Commonwealth Court's Impact Fee Injunction
-
Scott Detrow
Here’s the text of the Commonwealth Court’s impact fee injunction, which delays portions of Act 13 restricting local drilling regulation from taking effect for an additional 120 days.
The Court also clarifies something that’s been in dispute: whether local drilling regulations that go beyond Act 13’s guidelines are immediately voided by the law, or can only be challenged on a case-by-case basis. Commonwealth Court rules “pre-existing ordinances must remain in effect until or unless challenged pursuant to Act 13 and are found invalid.” In other words, a local drilling regulation is still legitimate until a driller challenges it in front of the Commonwealth Court or Public Utility Commission, and wins.
An important note: this injunction only covers the local zoning restrictions. Every other component of the legislation, including the fee, goes into effect as previously scheduled.
(Read the full document after the jump)
As Laura Olson points out over at Pipeline, the injunction’s footnotes are interesting: “While the court is not convinced that petitioners’ likelihood of success on the merits is high, it has weighed this factor against the other prerequisites for a preliminary injunction and concludes the remaining factors compel issuance of an injunction.”
Here’s the full order:
Editor's Picks
PARTNERS
FUNDERS
Climate Solutions partners
