In Darlington Township, It's Bats Vs. Drillers

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.

April 18, 2012 | 2:16 PM

A zoning official in Darlington Township, Beaver County, says Chesapeake can’t drill for natural gas on a farm that doubles as a habitat for bats.
But as the Post-Gazette reports, Chesapeake “is continuing with construction” anyway:

A Beaver County township has ordered a halt to shale gas drilling on a farm that is also a habitat for bats, saying that it violates local zoning rules.
The gas company, Chesapeake Appalachia, disputes the township’s cease-and-desist order and continues work on the well.
Darlington zoning officer Jeffrey A. Frye on Friday wrote to Chesapeake, claiming that it had not been granted a conditional use application to drill on the property of Robert McRoberts and family.
He continued that it “is hereby ordered that all earth moving activity associated with the construction of the … site must immediately cease and desist to avoid further action.”
A Chesapeake representative responded that the company “is continuing with construction of the project” because it believes that its application for a conditional use entitles it to drill, even if the application was not granted.