HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would authorize a tax on the shale gas industry and set uniform standards for development, changes that critics said would leave many municipalities with little control over the use of their land.

Approval in the House was expected on Wednesday.

The bill had been the subject of bitter controversy for months, pitting a number of municipalities against a powerful industry and state legislators eager to increase jobs and revenue. The measure was pushed by Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, who pledged to sign it into law.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania had been trying to agree on how to harness the development of the Marcellus Shale, a gas deposit under a large area of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The industry is booming here, and supporters of the bill say it is high time to focus government’s approach, or risk losing out on a valuable revenue stream.

Critics, among them some municipalities and environmental groups , said the bill was a capitulation to the energy industry and would all but eliminate their ability to decide where gas development could happen. The measure would limit it in densely populated urban areas but not in suburban spaces, critics said. They also said the environmental and safety standards, like the requirement that wells be at least 500 feet from any house, were weak.

“We have been sold out to the gas industry, plain and simple,” said Todd Miller, a town commissioner in South Fayette Township who opposed the legislation.

Myron Arnowitt, the state director for Clean Water Action, an environmental group, estimated that zoning laws in 100 to 200 municipalities would be in question.

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