Editorial: Drillers must accept zoning

Courts keep upholding the rights of municipalities to ban hydraulic fracturing, something that should be comforting to anyone who shares the widespread perception that we are losing our rights and the control our own destiny.

As the courts repeatedly have found, local governments elected by local people have the right to enact zoning laws to control land use. The state has the right to regulate drilling for oil and gas, but that right comes only if the local zoning permits such activity. It's a simple concept, one that the oil and gas industry objects to because it gets in the way of their profits. It's time the industry learned this lesson and stopped trying to go where it is not wanted.

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