The Commonwealth Court has ordered the state Public Utility Commission to cease and desist from reviewing municipal ordinances to determine whether they comply with the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code and the state Oil and Gas Act.
The agency was charged with the task under Section 3305, Chapter 33 of the recent Act 13 amendments to the Oil and Gas Act but Senior Judge Keith B. Quigley said in an order issued Thursday that the PUC should have ceased performing the reviews following the Commonwealth Court’s July 26 en banc ruling invalidating as unconstitutional those amendments that require municipalities to adopt uniform zoning ordinances that would allow drilling in all zoning districts.
