“The complaint, filed by attorney Kevin Gormly of the energy law firm Steptoe & Johnson, which operates in six states including Pennsylvania, also argues Geokinetics should not be bound by the regulations because the company had applied for a permit before the ordinance was adopted.”

How can you apply for a municipal permit if there was no ordinance requiring such a permit? The spin from the oil & gas industry is consistently bizarre and, often times, makes no sense at all.

What Geokenetics actually requested from Monroeville was permission to enter borough property to conduct their seismic survey. The borough declined that request. Monroeville is under no obligation at all to provide access to municipal property for a commercial use.

No matter if Geokenetics has a required municipal permit or not, Geokenetics must still obtain permission from a property owner to enter public and/or private property. Barring any previous contractual arrangement, no one is under any obligation at all to provide Geokentics with access to their property. If they enter private property without permission, it is trespassing. There is no permit available to trespass.

Douglas Shields, Food & Water Watch