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PA Court Rejects Environmental Rights Amendment Challenge to Appropriation of Oil and Gas Lease Funds for DCNR’s General Operations
November 2, 2020
Thomas M. Duncan
MGKF Litigation Blog
On October 22, 2020, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rejected a facial constitutional challenge to two statutory enactments that directed over $110 million generated from oil and gas leases on state lands to pay for the general government operations of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (“DCNR”), finding that the appropriations were not facially unconstitutional under Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, also called the Environmental Rights Amendment (“ERA”). Pa. Envtl. Defense Found. v. Commonwealth, No. 358 M.D. 2018 (Pa. Cmwlth.) (“PEDF IV”).
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