With the recent surge of drilling into Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale as a source of natural gas production, local governments are looking for guidance on the issue of what they can and cannot regulate with regard to oil and gas drilling.
Municipalities are granted certain authority to regulate zoning and subdivision and land development pursuant to the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), but how far does that power extend with respect to oil and gas? The MPC does not specifically address oil and gas regulation, but does broadly address “minerals” at 53 P.S. § 10603(i) as follows: “Zoning ordinances shall provide for the reasonable development of minerals in each municipality.” The term “minerals” is defined in Section 10107 of the MPC as being “any aggregate or mass of mineral matter, whether or not coherent” including “crude oil and natural gas.”
