This week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released a report on the extraordinary natural gas production occurring in Pennsylvania. The reason? Thanks to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, natural gas producers have been able to tap into the immense natural gas resources of the Marcellus shale, providing clean-burning energy for the nation, while stimulating job growth, and protecting the environment. As the EIA report explains, between 2009 and 2011 the Commonwealth quadrupled its natural gas production.
From the report:
“With the shift to and increase in horizontal wells, Pennsylvania’s natural gas production more than quadrupled since 2009, averaging nearly 3.5 billion cubic feet per day in 2011.”
This tremendous production growth has provided Pennsylvania communities with an opportunity to fuel the future with an abundant source of clean-burning energy. And as MSC President Kathryn Klaber highlights in a recent letter to the Pocono Record, natural gas is providing tangible benefits for our environment too. From the Pocono Record:
“Your readers should be reminded that responsible American natural gas development — and the expanded use of this abundant, clean-burning resource — continues to provide enormous and undeniable health-related benefits for all Americans. In fact, according to the U.S. Energy Department, natural gas is an ‘inherently clean-burning fuel’ and its expanded use in transportation fuels, for example, “improves public health and the environment.
“The cleanest burning fossil fuel, natural gas from the Marcellus Shale is not only generating economic and energy security benefits, but it’s also putting our nation a path toward a more sustainable future as it relates to environmental and public health.”
Technological innovations across the Commonwealth have opened up vast new energy reserves, while providing jobs and opportunities for our community, without sacrificing the natural beauty and health of Pennsylvania’s land.
