There's a lot wrong with the new state law regulating the Marcellus Shale gas drilling industry, but lawmakers got one thing right: putting oversight in the hands of Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission.
How much, where and how will it be used - questions regarding the new drilling impact fee passed by PA's House of Representatives.
Regardless of your position in the debate over hydraulic fracturing, something we can all agree on: New York state needs an economic jump-start. Local businesses that have supported communities for years are now struggling to survive. However, let's look at what has happened in one company in neighboring Pennsylvania with shale development.
All we want are the facts, but sometimes news reporters try to use statistics to unjustly convey a message to to their audience.
Natural gas prices in the United States have been low in the past few years, and increased estimates in natural gas reserves from shale formations in Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana are opening opportunities to increase exports to other nations. In some countries, natural gas prices are three times as high as they are in the United States.
A great deal of misinformation is flowing freely around the process of hydraulic fracturing, and in particular the fracturing fluids which are used to support the process. Let's look at the facts to shut off this fluid flow of myths.
Rapid growth in Marcellus Shale has been a mixed blessing. It has brought jobs for thousands of new workers, but also a shortage of housing as people move to Marcellus development areas. The Keystone Energy Forum and the Modular Building Systems Association recognize this issue, recently hosting a housing forum to identify and discuss the housing issues in areas affected by Marcellus Shale drilling.
Marcellus Shale development is good for the economy. Supporters have been saying this for years, but now, with a recent report from Penn State University, it's been found that state tax revenue in the counties with Marcellus Shale development did better - and in some cases significantly better - than those counties without it.
John Hanger, Pennsylvania's outgoing Secretary of Environmental Protection (DEP), leaves a strong foundation of economic expansion and environmental protection for his successors, and we hope that the incoming administration continues his legacy of approaching the issues based on sound facts.
So says Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. And this is particularly the case in Pennsylvania.
