PA Supreme Court rules that state lawmakers cannot interfere in abandoned oil and gas wells bonding case
The court denied Republican state legislators’ efforts to challenge PA environmental groups’ lawsuit against Act 96 which capped oil and gas well bonding amounts.
On August 4, 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied efforts by Pennsylvania Majority Leader Senator Joe Pittman, the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus, the Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Representative Bryan Cutler, and the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a law that prevents the Commonwealth from protecting communities from the harm caused by abandoned methane wells.
In August of 2023, PennFuture, the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Protect Penn-Trafford, and Earthworks filed a joint lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including Governor Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly, to challenge Act 96, a 2022 law that removed the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB)'s authority to adjust well bonding amounts and capped the amount for conventional wells at just $2,500 per well. This is well below the Department of Environmental Protection’s own estimates that the actual costs can range from $33,000 to $800,000 and, on average, $68,000 is required to plug a well and ensure that communities do not suffer the harms of abandonment.
The individual legislators and caucuses sought to intervene in the case, despite clear and recent state and federal precedent that limits the ability of individual legislators, who have the power to vote on laws and their own branch of government, to intervene into legal challenges or bring lawsuits of their own. On July 1, 2024, the Commonwealth Court denied the Application to Intervene. The legislators and caucuses appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, who issued a per curiam order affirming the Commonwealth Court’s decision to deny the intervention.
“We are pleased that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held firm on this basic legal principle that ensures our separate powers continue to act as checks and balances against each other,” said Emma Bast, staff attorney at PennFuture. “Pennsylvania’s highest court recently held in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center that there are plain limits on the ability of a legislator to intervene in a lawsuit, and this decision is simple and consistent with that precedent. We are pleased to move forward in this joint effort to fight for basic environmental protections for our members and their communities."
Rose Monahan, attorney at Sierra Club, noted “This is a strong step forward in a case that is really about Pennsylvanians’ having avenues to avoid taxpayers being on the hook to clean up the gas industry's mess, and ensure communities can be kept clean and healthy.”
“This litigation is about our state's Constitution, and that Republic legislators sought to rewrite fundamental principles of our Constitution so they can get their individual way is not how democracy works. We commend our Supreme Court for quickly recognizing this attempt and for denying their intervention based on core Constitutional principles and years of caselaw," said Lauren Otero, Staff Attorney at the Clean Air Council.
The case, Clean Air Council et al. v. Commonwealth, 379 MAP 2023, will now continue at the Commonwealth Court, where PennFuture, the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Protect Penn-Trafford, and Earthworks will resume their joint effort to ensure adequate well bonding amounts to plug oil and gas wells. A scheduling order has not yet been issued.