Supreme Court Virtual Oral Argument

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court accepted the appeals 2 WAP 2021 and 3 WAP 2021 regarding the Metis and Gaia well pads in Penn Township, Westmoreland County. Protect PT submitted their appeal to the Supreme Court in 2020. The appeal was accepted on two issues.

Protect PT asserts that the Commonwealth Court’s opinion was in capricious disregard of the evidence standard and creates an issue of such substantial public importance that requires prompt and definitive resolution by the Honorable Supreme Court.

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In the July 2020 opinion of Protect PT’s case at the Commonwealth Court, one judge, the Honorable Patricia McCullough acknowledged that “Protect PT presented both layperson and expert testimony. Most significantly, [Dr. Walter Tsou, MD, MPH] based his opinion on peer review literature and an analysis of the specific details of the Gaia Well Pad construction and its capabilities and opined that the Township and its residents would suffer detrimental harm.”

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Secondly, Protect PT questions whether the “Commonwealth Court's failure to meaningfully evaluate the cumulative impacts of developing multiple unconventional natural gas wells in close proximity to residential neighborhoods creating high probability of adverse, abnormal or detrimental effects on public health, safety and welfare and significantly altering the character of the community was an abuse of discretion which creates a question of first impression of such public importance which requires this Honorable Court's prompt and definitive resolution”.