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In Pittsburgh, a community bill of rights helped ban fracking

March 14, 2018

In Pittsburgh, a community bill of rights helped ban fracking

Here’s the problem: In 2010, the oil and gas industries operating in Pennsylvania were acquiring land leases that would allow them to extract natural gas using the process known as “fracking.” Many rural municipalities had been targeted already for this activity, and the state Legislature had enacted laws forbidding local governments from limiting or banning the industrial activities related to fracking. The people of Pittsburgh were alarmed to learn that a few larger open spaces — and even small parcels of land in the city — had been quietly leased for fracking. The nine members of the city council were hearing from their concerned district constituents and one of the council members put out a call for advice to environmental groups, land-use law firms, and other experts. A group discussion ensued in which nearly 30 organizations participated. The overarching question raised by the council member was, “How can Pittsburgh protect its people, environment, and water supply from the toxic effects of industrial gas extraction in the city?”

Here’s how one organization is working on the problem: After hearing advice from organizations suggesting appeals to state regulatory agencies and recommendations for new local zoning laws that might limit fracking to designated “heavy industrial zones,” the council member asked another important question, “Don’t these proposed ‘solutions’ actually allow fracking, rather than stop it?” The almost unanimous answer that came back was that “it’s illegal to stop the fracking, because of state preemption. The best you can do is try to limit the harm.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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