Marcellus Shale Awareness Group Sets Sights for 1,500 Petition Signatures

With the deadline to file a petition for an amendment to Peters Township’s Home Rule Charter less than a month away, the Marcellus Shale Awareness & Action organization believes they will have more than the number of signatures required to have a question to change the charter on the November general election ballots.

“We’re confident that we’re going to get enough signatures, but it’s still a lot of hard work,” said Rod Fletcher, a member of the Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness Group, and creator of the group’s website.

“The Peters Township Community Day event was very encouraging for us, and we’re finding that almost a margin of two-to-one residents are in favor of an outright ban on drilling.”

The petition that the group plans to file does not seek a ban against gas-well drilling, but rather but a question on the Nov. 8 ballot to ask Peters Township voters to collectively determine whether drilling makes sense for the township.

According to Fletcher, voters will decide if they want to amend the township’s home rule charter. The amendment would propose an addition to the charter establishing a “Bill of Rights” to “assert the right of residents of the township to local self-government of water, air and the peaceful enjoyment of their homes,” according to the group’s website.

Fletcher said even pro-drilling residents can and have signed the petitions.

“It just adds the question on the ballot," Fletcher said. “When folks sign the petition, they aren’t coming out saying they’re in favor of the ban or against it. The question is whether it should be the community that decides if we want any drilling at all in Peters Township."

The Marcellus Shale Awareness Group is being supported in the petition campaign by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which also support efforts in the city of Pittsburgh to ban Marcellus Shale drilling, and states that it is working with several other citizens groups in municipalities around the state.

Fletcher said the attempt to get a ballot question to change the home rule charter may be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.

He noted that a failed attempt to block gas drilling in Blaine Township is different than what the Peters Township group is attempting to do.

“The circumstances are drastically different,” Fletcher said. “Even though a drilling ban and charter change was shot down in Washington County Commonwealth Court, the judge in the case said an appeal should be filed, but township officials did not appeal.”

Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr said his office has been made aware that the petitions are being circulated, and that it is watching closely to see how the campaign plays out.

Spahr said he believes that if the Peters Township attempt is successful, it could be the first ever attempt in Pennsylvania.

According to Spahr, the election code for "home rule" townships requires that petitioners have at least 10 percent of the number of signatures of voters cast votes for governor in the last general election. 

Numbers provided by the elections office indicate that 9,000 votes were cast for all the governor candidates last November. It would mean petitioners will need at least 900 signatures to have the home rule question placed on the ballot.

Fletcher said the Marcellus Shale Awareness Group plans to have more than 1,500 signatures when they file the petitions on the Aug. 9 deadline. The election code indicates that any ballot question must be filed 13 weeks prior to the November election, which determines the August deadline.

The group, meanwhile, plans to attend the public hearing before township council on July 18—to comment on the revised Marcellus Shale ordinance.

“We’re definitely interested in what the township council is proposing,” he said. “We just feel that the measures that they are working under with the constraints of the Oil and Gas Act, the ordinance could not be sufficient. We don’t think under the ordinance that there is going to be adequate protection for the community.”

For updates, follow the organization on Facebook and Twitter.