Pennsylvania

Pileups block turnpike, interstate in eastern PA

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By: AP, 12/27/2013

Vehicles are piled up at mile marker 286 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a mile outside Reading, Pa., on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. Portions of both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 78 were shut down in snowy eastern Pennsylvania Thursday after chain-reaction pileups involved dozens of vehicles on slippery roads. (AP Photo/David C. Ronk)

READING, Pa. (AP) — Highways in eastern Pennsylvania have been reopened after being shut down for hours because of chain-reaction pileups that ensnared dozens of vehicles on snow-covered roads. No deaths have been reported. Pennsylvania Turnpike officials say 35 vehicles piled up Thursday, blocking westbound lanes and causing a 4-mile backup about 50 miles west of Philadelphia, between the Morgantown and Reading (REH'-ding) exits. Turnpike spokeswoman Renee Colborn says the highway reopened after 5 p.m. and about 10 people were taken to hospitals.

 

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PA Supreme Court Says It’s Unconstitutional For Gas Companies to Frack Wherever They Want

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Think Progress, By: Katie Valentine, 12/20/2013

Photo Credit: AFP

 

Some major parts of Pennsylvania’s two-year-old Marcellus Shale drilling law are unconstitutional, the state’s Supreme Court decided Thursday. As the  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, the court voted 4 – 2 that a provision that allowing natural gas companies to drill anywhere, regardless of local zoning laws, was unconstitutional. Seven municipalities had challenged the shale drilling law, known as Act 13, that  required “drilling, waste pits and pipelines be allowed in every zoning district, including residential districts, as long as certain buffers are observed.”

 

The Court said Act 13 “ fundamentally disrupted” the expectations of Pennsylvania residents living in residential zones, and that the provision wasn’t in line with Pennsylvania’s constitution or  Environmental Rights Amendment, which guarantees Pennsylvanians the “right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”

 

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