This editorial was first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on January 7, 2021--

One of the most remote municipalities in Allegheny County, rural West Deer Township, is also one of the most conservative. More than 60% of its votes went to Republicans in recent presidential elections.

The township commission and its constituents have, historically, favored natural gas drilling within West Deer.

It’s somewhat surprising, then, that commission members last month unanimously denied a permit requested by Olympus Energy to build its Dionysus well pad in the township.

We applaud the commissioners for standing up for their constituents.

Editorial board members have consistently supported natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing — if it’s done in a way that respects the natural environment and, above all, human health.

Some people, of course, believe the benefits of fracking never outweigh the costs, but we disagree.

Beyond the issue of fracking, the township commission strongly supports the autonomy of local governments and elected representatives to make decisions about industry and land use. 

The final word on how to pursue the common good of West Deer should, and does, belongs to the township commission, not Olympus Energy or its law firm, Babst Calland.

The question of how much latitude the state gives to local governments to deny gas extraction permits is complicated, and has been the subject of litigation.

But in the main, state law presumes the health and safety of fracking, and generally doesn’t allow local governments to find otherwise.

As a “legal land use,” every municipality in the commonwealth has to permit, at least in principle, natural gas drilling.

That’s why the West Deer decision rests, in part, on a technical violation of its own ordinance: The proposed well isn’t set back far enough from several nearby structures.

But the commission went further, hearing testimony — explicitly permitted by a 2019 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision — from outside the township about the environmental conduct of Olympus Energy.

And West Deer representatives didn’t like what they heard.

That is their prerogative.

Too often, municipal governments acquiesce to oil and gas companies and their government relations and law firms and meekly approve land-use permits.

Rural townships, or even wealthier suburbs, rarely have the resources to go toe-to-toe with a corporate juggernaut.

That’s not how democracy should work. It is, in effect, a coup that replaces government’s authority with that of the deepest pockets in the room.

The state ought to amend its laws to give local governments more tools to resist this kind of takeover, namely by removing the presumption of safety given to all fracking.

We’re happy to see more gas drilling in western Pennsylvania. But if West Deer township officials, reflecting the views and interests of their people, don’t want it there, more power to them.

NewsClip:

-- PG - Anya Litvak: You Can’t Stop A Gas Well Drilling Pad, Turns Out You Can

Related Articles This Week:

-- Sign Better Path Coalition Petition: DEP - Keep ALL Oil & Gas Wastewater Off Our Roads! 

-- DEP Draft Rule Does Not Ban Road Spreading Of Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater; Industry Objects To Waste Reporting Provisions

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Drillers Press DEP To Reduce Environmental Safeguards For Drilling And Treat Them The Same As Wind, Solar Energy Facilities

-- PA Environment Digest: All Road Spreading Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Articles

[Posted: January 7, 2021]

1/10/2022