The safe, tightly-regulated development of Pennsylvania’s job-creating natural gas resources from the Marcellus Shale continues to have a global reach. In fact, following last week’s front-page Wall Street Journal story about the positive impact Marcellus Shale natural gas development continues to have on our region’s manufacturing base, the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper details how America’s shale revolution is bolstering our industrial sectors while spurring job creation and economic growth. This from the article:
The wonders of US shale gas continue to amaze. We receive fresh evidence by the day that swathes of American industry have acquired a massive and lasting advantage in energy costs over global rivals, demolishing assumptions about US economic decline. Royal Dutch Shell is planning an ethane plant in the once-decaying steel valley of Beaver County, near Pittsburgh. Dow Chemical is shutting operations in Belgium, Holland, Spain, the UK, and Japan, but pouring money into a propylene venture in Texas where natural gas prices are a fraction of world levels and likely to remain so for the life-cycle of Dow’s investments.
The revival of the chemical industry is a spin-off from the greater drama of America’s energy rebound, though a very big one. … Shale has made the US self-sufficient in gas almost overnight.
And locally, in a joint Pittsburgh Post-Gazette op-ed, Pa. Department of Environmental Protection secretary Michael Krancer and Patrick Henderson, Governor Tom Corbett’s energy executive, write this under the headline “With the Marcellus Shale, Pa. is becoming a responsible energy capital”:
Recent reports from Standard & Poor’s and ITG Investment Research show the amount of recoverable gas in the Marcellus Shale play may be much greater than any previous government estimate. This is good news. Real American energy security and a real force in American job growth are available to us right now — if we continue to make the right decisions to obtain and use what we have right here. Both studies confirm that Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation is the global superstar of natural gas formations. The Marcellus Shale will help make Pennsylvania the energy capital of the nation and spark the rebirth of our petrochemical and manufacturing base.
Production from Marcellus wells is exceeding expectations, and some of the wells are among the most productive in the world. We already have 240,000 jobs related to our oil and natural gas extraction activities. When it comes to production numbers, Standard & Poor’s own words confirm that this is a “mere drop in the bucket” of the Marcellus’ full potential. … This new energy revolution is also being seen in Philadelphia. Refineries that were just recently pronounced dead have new life — in no small part because of hydraulically fractured, domestic oil and natural gas. The result is thousands of jobs and cleaner air from the use of natural gas and lower-sulfur domestic Bakken crude oil at the refineries.
Pennsylvania oversees this development responsibly under its effective oversight and comprehensive set of laws and regulations. Through Act 13, Gov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature have not only enhanced environmental protection standards but also put in place a per-well impact fee, with an initial distribution of $204 million to Pennsylvania municipalities and commonwealth agencies. … From encouraging wastewater recycling to one of the most progressive hydraulic fracturing fluid disclosure laws in the nation, the state’s oil and gas program assures responsible, protective development of natural gas. Pennsylvania has more than doubled the number of oil and gas inspectors, who have conducted more than 20,000 inspections just this year.
Every Pennsylvanian is already benefiting from the Marcellus Shale. We are only at the beginning of building Pennsylvania into the energy center of the world and the jobs center of the country.
Have questions about how natural gas is produced from the Marcellus Shale and ultimately how this clean-burning, abundant American resource is powering our economy, including our manufacturing sector? Visit LearnAboutShale.org and join the online conversation using #LearnAboutShale. And don’t forget to watch and share this video, Powering an American Renaissance.
