Range Resources—Appalachia, LLC v. Salem Township
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
964 A.2d 869 (Pa. 2009)
Salem Township (defendant) enacted a detailed ordinance regulating oil and gas well permitting, bonding, site restoration, and well-capping requirements, overlapping with and often more restrictive than the state Oil and Gas Act's provisions; oil and gas producers including Range Resources (plaintiffs) sued to invalidate the ordinance under the Act's supersession clause barring local ordinances that regulate oil and gas well operations, and the trial and appellate courts both ruled the ordinance preempted in full, with Salem arguing on further appeal that preemption should instead be analyzed provision by provision.
Whether a local ordinance regulating oil and gas drilling is invalidated by a state statute preempting local ordinances that purport to regulate oil and gas well operations, where the ordinance goes beyond traditional zoning.