The Marcellus Shale – and the decades worth of clean-burning natural gas supplies that it holds – are reviving sluggish regions of Pennsylvania’s economy and helping to deliver thousands of dollars to rural landowners at a time when genuine economic stimulus is most needed.
Under the headline “Marcellus Shale brings big checks for some landowners,” the Patriot News reported this:
Hundreds of people from far-flung farms and rural communities across a large swath of northern Pennsylvania trekked to an American Legion post this weekend to have checks — often for large, life-changing amounts of money — pressed into their hands.
It went on throughout the day yesterday and continued this morning. Some people cried with happiness.
“There were a lot of checks that were well over $100,000,” said Chip Lines-Burgess, who is attending the event. “It is a lot of money for people up here. It is a lot of money for people anywhere.”
The source of the money is some 6,000 feet below the ground in a layer of rock called Marcellus Shale. The rock contains huge amounts of natural gas. The checks came from a gas company that is buying gas drilling rights from locals. The biggest land owners will get millions of dollars up front, with more to follow if wells drilled on their land produce gas.
And while this only the beginning of the untold economic benefits presented by the Marcellus, the Harrisburg-based Patriot News reported this, too:
Overshadowing the debate is the vast economic power locked up in the Marcellus Shale. Some say the gas industry could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and pump billions of dollars into the state economy in years to come. While thousands of well permits have already been issued in Pennsylvania and hundreds of wells drilled, the Marcellus Shale “play” as observers call it, is only beginning.
“The Marcellus Shale segment of our industry is still in its infancy,” said Stephen Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association. “It is going to be years until we understand the scope and size of the industry.”
“God has put the Marcellus Shale underneath our property,” said Lines-Burgess, a spokeswoman for the group. “We are about the luckiest people in the whole world right now.”
Regional newspapers are also singing the Marcellus Shale’s praises. The Williamsport Sun-Gazette wrote this in an editorial entitled “Expo shows true depth of gas drilling windfall”:
The diverse and robust economic impact of the potential natural gas drilling boom in our region was evident in numbers and scope at a natural gas business expo last weekend.
The expo was attended by more than 130 businesses and they talked to an estimated 1,000-plus visitors. But that is just the numbers part of the story.
A health center was represented because of the impact it can make providing physical therapy and meeting medical needs of gas wellfield workers.
A Montoursville businesswoman was looking for new businesses who need products to give away at, well, expos like the one last weekend.
A hose company was looking for buyers among the many gas drilling companies looking to use this area.
A storage shed business was looking to merchandise his housing for pipes and natural gas construction equipment.
These probably aren’t the first business opportunities that come to mind when thinking of the natural gas drilling industry’s economic impact on our region.
The paper closed with this:
As much as we talk about the employment temporary and long-term that the drilling can bring, all of the above examples will generate employment, too. They also represent expansion and profit opportunities for those existing businesses that may not have come along in a decade. If ever.
But when that industry carries with it the sort of broad-ranging economic opportunity that this one does, it’s in everyone’s best interests to make the three-way partnership of environment, government regulation and free enterprise work.
And on the important issue of regulation, and ensuring that natural gas production and hydraulic fracturing are done in an environmentally-sound fashion, State. Representative Garth Everett of Muncy, PA may have summed it best in telling the Sun-Gazette this yesterday:
Everett essentially said all efforts are done to help and protect the environment. He said he didn’t want a county that wasn’t the same for generations of children and grandchildren.
While states have effectively regulated hydraulic fracturing – the essential tool needed to produce clean-burning natural gas from shale formations, like the Marcellus, thousands of feet below ground – some in Washington favor a federal takeover of this commonsense regulatory understanding. Usurping state rights to permit, oversee and regulate fracking would all but halt natural gas production, and would threaten the economic development – like the ones mentioned above – associated with these 60-year old process.
New York Times Hat-Tips Fracking … Well, Sorta
An article in today’s New York Times entitled “Oil Industry Sets a Brisk Pace of New Discoveries” sheds light on the “hot streak” of new energy discoveries around the world, including the various natural gas shale plays right here in the United States.
This from Jad Mouawad’s report:
It is not just oil that is benefiting from the exploration boom. Repsol, Spain’s biggest oil company, said this month that it had discovered what could turn out to be Venezuela’s biggest natural gas field. In recent years, companies have found substantial natural gas reserves in the United States, from shale rocks once believed to be impossible to drill.
One of the key technologies that has made accessing these huge natural gas reserves possible, of course, is hydraulic fracturing. Without hydraulic fracturing – a 60-year safe and well-regulated technique – trillions of cubic feet of clean-burning natural gas, energy that heats homes, runs factories, create sgood jobs and fuel economies, would remain trapped underground, buried beneath miles of impermeable rock.
And a Grand Junction Sentinel editorial today also praised such energy production technologies:
Although natural gas received little mention at the U.N. Tuesday, new technology has dramatically increased the amount of gas available in the past few years.
The Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia through Pennsylvania and into New York, has been ground zero for America’s natural gas production boon. And its economic effects are already being felt in small, rural counties across the region, and will continue to be for years to come.
Today’s Williamsport Sun-Gazette provides a snapshot:
The development of natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale is “a once-in-100-year opportunity” that will exceed – on an economic level – previous resource booms, such as the lumber industry, economist John C. Felmy said Wednesday.
“This town was built on a boom. This is an opportunity that could be every bit as big, but it could last for decades instead of a short time,” Felmy, a chief economist with the American Petroleum Institute, said during a community meeting hosted by the Marcellus Shale Committee at Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Klump Auditorium.
Larry L. Michael, Penn College’s Workforce and Economic Development executive director, said a recent study performed by the college in conjunction with Penn State Cooperative Extension shows that job opportunities are likely to increase dramatically in the northcentral region of Pennsylvania due to natural gas development.
“Most of those jobs will be blue collar,” Michael said.
Over the next five years, gas development will create about 8,000 full-time direct jobs in the region, he said.
“That is a significant impact on our region,” Michael said.
The article, entitled “Committee provides update on gas drilling,” added this:
D’Amico added that any time an area has a commodity in abundance, it attracts other industries that need that commodity to the area, thus creating additional jobs.
The industry could create up to 174,000 jobs by the year 2020, he said.
Without hydraulic fracturing, the abundant energy resources that it delivers to American consumers, families, retirees and small businesses, would not be possible. While a clear majority of the American public support environmentally responsible domestic energy production – which helps stabilize energy costs and drive down foreign imports – some in Washington would rather impede, block or altogether halt home-grown energy from reaching those who need and rely upon it the most.
Marcellus Shale Continues to be a Bonanza for Lil’ Broome Co.
This isn’t the first time we’ve blogged about the untold amounts of economic growth, revenue, jobs and development that the Marcellus Shale holds for Broome County in New York’s Southern Tier. Positioned along Pennsylvania’s northern border, Broome County holds enough clean-burning natural gas to pave the way for 16,000 good-paying jobs, $793 million in wages, and $15.3 billion in total economic output according to a study commissioned by the county government. This natural gas production – and the associated economic benefits – are wholly dependent upon the safe, well-regulated 60-year old energy production technique called hydraulic fracturing.
And now, even more positive news is thundering across local television channels in Broome County.
Under the headline “Economic Impacts of Drilling In Broome,” WBNG-TV reported this today:
Broome County could see a boom in business if natural gas commences in the Southern Tier.
An Economic professor from the University of North Texas formally presented a preliminary study Tuesday night to the County Legislature.
The study finds that gas drilling would generate hundreds of new jobs, but did not study how drilling will effect the area environmentally.
Researcher Bernard Weinstein believes millions of dollars in tax revenue make up for any environmental costs that could be looming down the road.
“Having worked at lot of gas companies who are drilling in Oklahoma and Texas that the environmental footprint is fairly small. If you look at the history of the Barnett Shale in Northern Texas, in the last 15 years there’s been very little of what one might call environmental disruption, accidents, excess wear and tear,” said Weinstein.”
And FOX 40 News WICZ-TV reported this under the headline “Gas Study: Big Bucks for Binghamton”:
“Natural gas drilling can transform the economy. … That’s what Bernard Weinstein told the Broome County legislature Tuesday evening.
“I’m not a geologist, I’m not a petroleum engineer, I’m not a geophysicist. I’m an economist,” Weinstein said.
And Broome County tapped him to conduct a three-month study on how Marcellus Shale drilling would financially impact the Southern Tier.
“We have done our due diligence on the environmental side, we have made recommendations to the DEC, we have talked to our federal representatives. We just believe if it’s done properly, done right, it could have a tremendous economic impact on our region,” Deputy County Executive Darcy Fauci said.
Weinstein compares the Southern Tier to Northern Texas — where the Barnett Formation has brought in more than six million dollars. “Binghamton and Broome County are sitting right on top of the Marcellus Shale. That’s about five times the size of the Barnett,” Weinstein said. And if Greater Binghamton maximizes drilling — Weinstein says that would mean 10 to 15 billion dollars for Broome over 10 years.”
But, for these jobs and revenues to be realized, Governor Patterson must move forward with issuing leases. And, even if he does, and the DeGette-Hinchey-Casey anti-fracking bill becomes law, this economic revival could be swept away – which might make for a good Broome County pun, but not for a good Broome County economy.
The safe, well-regulated 60-year old energy production technique known as hydraulic fracturing has helped transform America’s economy, and is continuing to do so today. In shale plays across the nation, fracking is helping to unlock massive amounts of job-creating clean-burning natural gas.
A column by in today’s Montgomery Advertiser highlights the long, clear record of success and safety that hydraulic fracturing lays claim to. Under the headline “Shale gas crucial to nation,” William Reed writes:
The dramatic increase in U.S. production of natural gas would not have been possible without a precise and reliable technology for drilling through thick shale. Known as hydraulic fracturing, it has taken on increasing importance as an effective but little-known weapon in the battle against atmospheric pollution and dependence on foreign fuels.
Yet though it is largely unknown to us, we benefit from hydraulic fracturing at dozens of points in our daily lives. Thanks to this technology, plastics and other materials made from natural gas are used in scores of consumer products. Our industries rely on the availability of natural gas, and it’s needed for heating and electricity production.
In addition, our future fortunes look likely to become ever more closely linked with those of hydraulic fracturing, a process in which water and other materials are pumped at high pressure to break through underground rock formations and reach beds of natural gas.
Reed makes certain to emphasize the serious threat posed by proposals, such as the anti-clean energy production FRAC Act, that would strip states of their right to safely regulated hydraulic fracturing:
In addition, bills have been introduced that would empower the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Environmental groups maintain that fracking, as it’s known, risks polluting underground drinking water supplies. But EPA itself has found little or no threat to water systems from hydraulic fracturing. State governments currently regulate hydraulic fracturing.
The proposed legislation would give EPA power to limit the type of fluids used in hydraulic fracturing or prohibit the practice altogether. But the use of hydraulic fracturing is one reason why shale gas production has become economically feasible in recent years.
America needs to embrace policies that will stimulate, rather than retard, domestic gas production.
But it’s not just opinion pages that have underscored the economic and security importance of domestic natural gas production. National Public Radio, — yes, that NPR — shed light on America’s natural gas reserves in a piece entitled “Rediscovering Natural Gas By Hitting Rock Bottom.” Here are key experts of this report:
But the natural gas folks now have numbers on their side due to new successes in getting gas out of shale rock. Geologists have always known that shale rock, often found in combination with coal and oil deposits, holds substantial amounts of natural gas. If a piece of shale rock is broken and lit with a match, it will actually burn for a few moments with a small flame.
The shale gas was previously considered unreachable, but advances in drilling techniques have changed that assessment. The result is a dramatic increase in estimated natural gas reserves. The Potential Gas Committee, loosely affiliated with the Colorado School of Mines, reported in June that natural gas reserves in the United States are actually 35 percent higher than believed just two years ago, and some geologists say even that estimate is too conservative.
And the NRP report also homed in on hydraulic fracturing, the essential tool for natural gas production:
The tightness of the shale rock would mean that relatively little of the trapped gas would seep into the pipeline. Gas producers therefore fracture the rock by forcing a water and sand mixture into the formation at very high pressure. This “water fracturing” technique opens millions of tiny cracks in the rock, enabling more of the gas to seep out.
Horizontal drilling and water fracturing are not new techniques in the oil and gas business, but only in recent years have producers used the procedures in combination to produce shale gas, and the results have been dramatic.
“It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever even heard of,” says Ray Walker, vice president of Range Resources, a gas exploration and production company. “It’s huge. The ability to produce these shale reservoirs is going to revolutionize this industry all over the world.”
Despite tremendous economic, security and environmental benefits, hydraulic fracturing and the production of domestic natural gas remains squarely in the crosshairs of many lawmakers in Washington who oppose this safe, well-regulated technique that gives so many Americans access to the energy that is rightfully theirs.
Like California in 1849, Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale a “Gold Mine”
The Marcellus Shale natural gas play has been – and will continue to be for the foreseeable future – a major economic engine for the states that it encompasses, particularly New York and Pennsylvania. Advocates and government officials from every level continue to fight safe, effective and well-regulated natural gas production in this region. The job creation and economic opportunity potentials are overwhelming.
But there is a very grave threat that would curb all of this positive growth and development some are advocating for in Washington. Called the FRAC Act, this legislation would strip the states of their right to regulate the 60-plus year old energy production process known as hydraulic fracturing.
Thankfully, though, key proponents of affordable and reliable energy are speaking out with force. US Congressman Glenn Thompson (R-PA) took to the pages of the Washington Examiner over the weekend, expressing his support for the jobs and economic promises that the Marcellus Shale holds, as well as the safe, well-regulated fracking process critical to producing the natural gas thousands of feet below the surface.
Thompson, a member of the House Small Business panel, wrote this in a columned entitled “There is a natural gas gold mine under our feet”:
The safe and well-regulated process involved in producing and delivering natural gas from the Marcellus has already paid dividends to our region and commonwealth. According to a recent Penn State study, Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling last year generated 29,000 jobs, added $2.3 billion to the economy and generated $240 million in state and local taxes. For 2009 the estimates are 48,000 jobs, $400 million in tax revenues and economic output will top $3.8 billion.
But that process – an energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing – finds itself under withering attack today. Not because it’s dangerous, or untested, or ineffective. No, it’s being targeted for elimination today because it’s considered too effective.
The first-term central Pennsylvania congressman closed with this:
The Marcellus Shale represents a tremendous opportunity to expand and grow the economy, get people back to work, decrease our debt and lessen our dependence on imported energy.
With an economy in peril, millions of Americans out of work, and our dependence on far-away dictators for our energy growing by the day, not since the second World War has there been a more important time to put our region’s massive energy resources to good use.
In hydraulic fracturing, we now have the tools we need to confront these challenges in a safe and effective way. And if history is a guide, you can bet that’s exactly what we’ll do.
Testament to the Marcellus Shale’s long-term economic capacity, the Washington Observer Reporter wrote this under the headline “Expert predicts prosperous Pa. future with natural gas” recently:
An author of a study on the economic impact of the Marcellus Shale region said Friday that Pennsylvania could become a gas exporting state and by the end of the next decade could be hosting a $13.5 billion industry that generates 175,000 new jobs across the state.
But Dr. Robert Watson, professor emeritus of petroleum and natural gas engineering at Penn State, told members of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce that the industry, which invested $2.8 billion and created 29,000 jobs last year in Pennsylvania, faces a variety of physical, environmental, governmental and even psychological challenges.
Watson, who co-authored the study with several others in the energy field, said the Marcellus Shale region, which stretches across two-thirds of Pennsylvania and occupies parts of four other states, has the potential of supplying most of the energy needs for the Northeast for the next 100 years.
Jobs, energy security for a century, much-needed state revenues: Why again is US Senator Bob Casey, and others, opposed to the safe production of American natural gas? Please ask them why.
The New Space Program? Fracturing Technology Redefining “The Possible” All Across North America
Hydraulic fracturing has long played a critical role in safely delivering reliable supplies of energy to communities, working families, small businesses, manufacturers and others, helping to drive and grow economies.
The cutting-edge, 21st century energy production technologies – hydraulic fracturing chief among them – were highlighted in an article featured in today’s Globe and Mail. Under the headline “Newest high-tech business? Oil and gas,” reporter Shawn McCarthy wrote this:
New drilling and production technology has dramatically transformed North America’s natural gas industry by unlocking massive shale gas reservoirs. Now, those technological advances are being adopted more broadly in the oil and gas industry to reduce costs in mature or difficult-to-tap fields.
Service companies have, over the past five years, made huge strides in so-called fracturing techniques, which are used to stimulate oil and gas production from the rock in which the hydrocarbons are trapped.
Together with drilling advances, a variety of technologies have allowed producers to tap long-discovered gas reservoirs in shale rock, including the prolific Barnett, Haynesville and Fayetteville fields in the United States, and the Montney and Horn River plays in Canada.
It’s no wonder why so many energy producers are relying so heavily on hydraulic fracturing, which is soundly regulated by states. The 60-year old process has a long and clear track record of safety, efficiency, and effectiveness in delivering reliable energy resources to those who need and rely upon them. It’s also no wonder why so many public officials – governors, state legislators, congressmen and senators alike – oppose burdensome federal regulations that would kill the use of this essential energy production method, as well as the thousands of good-paying jobs associated.
Deep Shale Gas: Abundant, Affordable and Water Efficient
Just the Facts: Fracking is Safe, Well-Regulated, and Supported by Local Communities
