Local officials fighting states' moves to exercise all authority over natural-gas drilling

State governments that want to take advantage of the natural-gas boom are facing resistance from local officials who want to control noise and industrialization that accompanies gas drilling, report Daniel Gilbert and Russell Gold of The Wall Street Journal. States created laws that prevent localities from regulating drilling because legislators feared local officials would stunt job growth, but in some places, town officials are attempting to change the laws.

In Pennsylvania, seven towns are are suing the state to overturn a law passed in February that prevents them from using zoning laws to regulate oil and gas development. The suit claims the state has overstepped its constitutional powers. An Ohio senator introduced legislation last week that would give local officials more control over location of drilling, and in New York localities can use their zoning laws to ban drilling, but one company is appealing that ruling.

A spokesman or America's Natural Gas Alliance, Dan Whitten, told the Journal that many local governments "want to change the rules under which we operate after we've made investments, and that makes for a difficult situation." But these situations make local officials nervous. That's what led Ohio state Sen. Capri Cafaro to introduce legislation "to rescind the exclusive authority of state officials to regulate oil and gas, and to require drillers to comply with local zoning rules," Gilbert and Gold report. (Read more)