Court gives legislature 6 months to fix gas law | StateImpact Pennsylvania Skip Navigation

Court gives legislature 6 months to fix gas law

While striking down portions of Pennsylvania's 2012 oil and gas law, the state Supreme Court told the legislature to fix one section.

Marie Cusick/ StateImpact Pennsylvania

While striking down portions of Pennsylvania's 2012 oil and gas law, the state Supreme Court told the legislature to fix one section, relating to public notification of spills.


Pennsylvania’s highest court struck down industry-friendly portions of the state’s 2012 oil and gas law Wednesday, giving a win to municipalities and environmental groups that challenged it.
But one section dealing with how the public should be alerted when a spill happens remains in limbo.
The law, known as Act 13, required state environmental regulators to only notify public drinking water systems after a spill. The Court sided with groups challenging it, who argued private water well owners should be alerted too.Ā About 3 million Pennsylvanians have private wells and many live in rural areas with shale drilling.
In its ruling, the Court struck down the entire section, but noted this is problematic because it eliminates the notification requirement entirely. So it issued a stay on its mandate for 180 days, to give the legislature time to craft “remedial legislation”– basically to fix it, and add in notification requirements for private wells too.
House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin says this is a tall order becauseĀ Pennsylvania is one of a few states that doesn’t regulate private water wells.
“How do you notify what you donā€™t know exists? It’s something weā€™re trying to work through,” says Miskin. “It makes you wonder, did the the Court even realize that?”
That lack of private well regulation became a big problem during the early days of the Marcellus Shale boom, as people tried to sort out whether water problems were pre-existing orĀ caused by gas development.
There are only six days the House and Senate will be in session together before the end of year, and lawmakers are tackling a lot of other issues.
So, will this be on the agenda?
“Oh heck no,” says Miskin. “I doubt it will happen.”
Drew Crompton is theĀ top lawyer for Senate Republicans and chief of staff to SenateĀ President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R- Jefferson). He also helped write Act 13 and says the Court’s activism has thrown out good regulatory language.
“Senator Scarnati and many other senators do not support undue regulation of private water wells. This is, at its core, a private property rights issue,” Crompton says in an email. “At this point I don’t know what the correct remedial path is.”
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Neil Shader says the agency is still reviewing the ruling.
“DEP will continue to provide notice where the agency believes there may be a potential impact to water supplies and/or water users,” he says. Ā “This is part of the agency’s obligations under a variety of statutes and regulations.”

Up Next

Attorney for PUC says "small cadre" trying to kill gas industry