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Most of the Dimock Township, PA, residents who filed a lawsuit against Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., alleging the company contaminated their water wells, have agreed to an undisclosed settlement, according to documents filed in federal court on Monday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said Friday the state has appealed to the state Supreme Court a ruling by the Commonwealth Court that struck down portions of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

In a 4-3 decision on Thursday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that portions of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, were “unconstitutional, null and void” on the grounds that its limits on local zoning violate municipalities’ right to substantive due process.

Attorneys involved with a legal challenge to portions of Act 13, Pennsylvania’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, say a decision by the state’s Commonwealth Court could come within a month and will have far-reaching consequences regardless of which way the court rules.

Pointing to international investment house failures that rebounded to their U.S. affiliates and ultimately the American taxpayer, Chairman Gary Gensler of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said those foreign-based affiliates should come under the same market reforms being installed in the United States.

A panel of seven Commonwealth Court judges heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by seven Pennsylvania municipalities and others that claim parts of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, are unconstitutional.

Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the leading Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on Thursday urged President Obama to use his power under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 to restrict the export of natural gas, coal, petroleum products and petrochemical feedstocks. Markey earlier in the year introduced two bills to block liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the leading Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on Thursday urged President Obama to use his power under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 to restrict the export of natural gas, coal, petroleum products and petrochemical feedstocks. Markey earlier in the year introduced two bills to block liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports (see Daily GPI, Feb. 15).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Friday that a fourth and final round of testing indicates that water from 12 private wells in Dimock Township, PA is safe to drink, and found no evidence of contamination from natural gas drilling.