A Pennsylvania judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by landowners upset with fracking opponents. A developer and a dozen of the landowners sued the opponents, seeking damages for royalties they were not able to collect from gas drilling companies who have leases to drill on their land in western Pennsylvania.
The fracking opponents argued it was nothing but a so-called SLAPP suit or “strategic lawsuit against public participation” aimed at silencing them. The Butler county judge agreed and dismissed the lawsuit.
The drilling had been delayed in the community of Middlesex where about 800 residents have challenged a zoning ordinance that would allow drilling in 90 percent of the rural township.
