Rigzone: Different Towns, Different Rules for Gas Drilling

The mounting wave of Marcellus Shale gas drilling is creating a substantial challenge for local municipalities.

What can they regulate? What do they want to regulate? How can they regulate it?

On the flip side, municipalities are creating a substantial challenge for Marcellus Shale drilling companies.

“You may have 10 municipalities here that may have 10 different ordinances, and in the same geographic area in Texas, it would be one municipality,” Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said. “It’s a uniquely Pennsylvania challenge …

“What we really need is balance, some level of consistency across the state. That way planners can plan and the industry can have some consistency, which is all we’re really asking for.”

The cost and delay of dealing with the varied rules is such an issue that Mr. Pitzarella said most companies would accept more stringent regulations in exchange for consistency from municipality to municipality.

That, however, is not what is happening in southwestern Pennsylvania.

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