Drilling under Pennsylvania’s ‘Gasland’ town has been banned since 2010. It’s coming back.

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

One of Pennsylvania’s leading natural gas companies is poised to drill and frack in the rural community where it was banned for a dozen years for polluting the water supply. Coterra Energy Inc. has won permission from state environmental regulators to drill 11 gas wells underneath a 9-square-mile rectangle in Dimock Township. The tiny crossroads in northeastern Pennsylvania once found itself in the middle of a national debate over fracking. Some landowners can’t wait for the Houston-based drilling giant to resume gas production. Other residents dread the industry’s return.