Marcellus Shale

Another Great Year at the 2012 Northern Tier Natural Gas Expo

This past Saturday was the 3rd Annual Northern Tier Marcellus Business Expo at Alparon Park in Troy, Pennsylvania. As in years past, the event was a great opportunity for many local businesses to promote themselves and local residents to come out, meet many of our natural gas operators and get any questions they had answered.

Northern Tier Gas Expo A Continuing Success!

This year’s event saw over 200 vendors from all over the country and around 2,000 attendees. According to Lauren Hotaling, the countywide economic development manager for the Bradford County Progress Authority,

“We have over 200 exhibitors registered to attend the expo,” Lauren Hotaling, countywide economic development manager for the Progress Authority said, “and we are anticipating more. Registration for businesses to exhibit at the expo will continue until the day of the event, itself.

The variety of businesses already registered is not limited to just those directly associated with natural gas,” she noted. “We have advertisers, attorneys, construction companies, engineering firms, contractors, Realtors, consultation firms and educators and trainers. There are businesses registered that are based in the Williamsport and Scranton areas, all the way up to the Southern Tier of New York,” Hotaling said. “There will also be businesses from Colorado, Texas, Arkansas and Ohio.” – Lauren Hotaling (June 22, 2012)

Some of the more crowd drawing booths were  Cabot Gas & Oil and Chesapeake Energy mainly due to their natural gas powered vehicle displays. Cabot displayed a recently converted natural gas-powered 1955 Chevrolet. On the other side of the vehicle spectrum Chesapeake showcased their natural gas chopper which was created by nearby Orange County Choppers (Montgomery, New York).

Business Expo

Northern Tier Business Expo

CNG Powered Vehicles

Being able to see the vehicles in person really helped put natural gas development into perspective.  We clearly have the technology to utilize this abundant resource. Given the current low price of natural gas, it is the right time to move ahead with development of natural gas powered vehicles that will lower their price tag and further magnify the benefits.

Chesapeake Energy

Chesapeake Energy Chopper

Nonetheless, converting your car to natural gas fuel isn’t as hard on the wallet as many might think. Mike Faillace, the Chevrolet’s owner had this to say about the project:

The entire conversion project cost only $1,800 and a weekend of labor.

Chesapeake’s custom chopper is obviously one for show.  Notwithstanding this, it does show us anything is possible with natural gas.  American ingenuity can deliver if we but make the move to build on it.

Mansfield University: Marcellus Institute

Mansfield University
Mansfield University

Mansfield University is dedicated to teaching just about everything energy in the region.  Natural gas development has created thousands of jobs and Mansfield is stepping up, to educate and prepare people for work in this sector.

Mansfield University was in attendance to provide information about their new classes which are set to start this Fall.  As of June 28th, the board of governors of the Pennsylvania State of Higher Education approved two new degree programs for Mansfield University. One of these is an associate degree program in natural gas production and services.  There will also be a new bachelor of science degree program in safety management.

These programs will focus on various types of expertise required by the industry including: permitting and inspection specialist, mud logging and geologist specialist, environmental specialist, geographic information systems specialist and safety management specialist.

Mansfield University is a public liberal arts institution, we’re in the heart of Marcellus Shale, and that puts us in the unique position to continue to fulfill our mission, serving not only our area but the entire Commonwealth. – Mansfield University Interim President, Allan Golden

These new programs will begin to be offered in the fall 2012 semester.

Not only was the expo informative for all who attended, but it was also informative for our EID team, as readers of this blog came around and gave us advice and feedback on what we’ve been doing.  We also had a blast watching TruthLand with the folks in attendance and handed out hundreds of copies-many of which went to people who know Shelly.  Check out our Facebook album here to see more pictures of the day.

All in all, it was another great day and we are already looking forward to next year’s event.

 

 

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