Job-Creating Marcellus Shale Continues to Fuel Economic Growth, Strengthen U.S. Competitiveness

Canonsburg, PA – Expanding America’s manufacturing base, creating good-paying jobs for returning veterans, developing supply chain-related opportunities for small businesses, strengthening U.S. security and competitiveness, adhering to environmental stewardship. These are just some of the benefits tied directly to the responsible development of clean-burning American natural gas. Here’s what newspaper editorials from Pennsylvania, and across the country, are saying about domestic natural gas.

  • “Marcellus Shale Energized Area”:  Our region continues to benefit from the natural gas boom. And it could be just the beginning of something even more wonderful. … The secondary spin-off from the energy-rich Marcellus Shale has everything from banking institutions, engineers and construction companies contracted to design and build plant expansions seeing growth in a mediocre economy. (Tribune Democrat editorial, 4/22/12)
  • “Drilling’s Benefits Evident”: American officials only need to look at the natural gas market to find a potential solution to the prolonged high fuel prices that are sapping families and the economy. … Four years ago, the gas cost recovery rate for Dominion Peoples – now Peoples Natural Gas – jumped 22 percent to $12.44 per 1,000 cubic feet. … This month, the same 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas costs $4.13, about a third of the price four years ago. … That’s great news to the tens of thousands of area residents and businesses who use natural gas to heat their homes and facilities. … Natural gas shows the benefit of unlocking our domestic energy resources. (Altoona Mirror editorial, 4/15/12)
  • “Natural Gas Consumer Potential Worth Tapping”: UGI Utilities Inc. Vice President of Marketing Allen Westbrook testified at the meeting that of some 7,400 of the company’s new residential heating customers last year, 80 percent switched from oil to natural gas. And those customers saw an average annual savings of $1,500. That’s not chump change. … Of course, forgotten amid all the gnashing of teeth will be the potential energy savings natural gas can bring to consumers. We can’t have it both ways, complaining about the environmental nuisance and expense that oil brings with it as an energy source while stubbornly refusing to allow the cleaner, more efficient and cheaper natural gas industry to grow to its potential. (Williamsport Sun-Gazette editorial, 4/19/12)
  • Gov. “Cuomo Must Allow Responsible Natural Gas Drilling in New York”: New York’s progress toward a future of clean, cheap energy — plus economic growth — has ground to a halt, courtesy of anti-drilling absolutists who’ve buried state regulators in a mountain of nuisance paperwork. … Thanks to the technology, numerous states have begun to tap into huge supplies of natural gas that, until now, had been trapped in underground shale formations. … The industry has used [hydraulic fracturing] for decades — including in thousands of New York wells — without major incident. … This advance has made it possible to tap shale formations that were previously out of reach — and that hold, by some estimates, a supply of gas that could last a century or more. President Obama, a fracking fan, has said it could make America the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. … Thanks to Albany’s hypercautious approach, New York has missed the first wave of this boom, even as its neighbors in Pennsylvania have taken full advantage. Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens must stare down the hysterics and open the door for responsible drilling in New York. (New York Daily News editorial, 4/21/12)
  • “EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has Proclaimed Fracking Safe”: The endless roadblocks, it seems, are intended to kill fracking in New York — even before it’s born. Which would leave the upstate economically beleaguered Marcellus Shale region . . . where exactly? As economically beleaguered as ever — with no relief in sight, thanks to the state’s foot-dragging. … EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has proclaimed fracking safe — and an economic bonanza.  So has her boss, President Obama. All New York needs is for Gov. Cuomo and Commissioner Martens to join the 21st century — and the rest of the nation. And end all the willful delays, once and for all. (New York Post editorial, 4/23/12)
  • “FracFocus.org Shows Energy Industry Accepts Responsibilities” to Transparency: Hydraulic fracturing has been around for decades but came into full flower more recently with intense activity in shale formations. The evidence of contamination caused by fracking is scant, but the anti-fossil fuel lobby remains intent on getting fracking under the EPA’s purview — if not banned altogether. Participation in FracFocus.org shows that the energy industry accepts its responsibilities. (The Oklahoman editorial, 4/22/12)
  • “For Good Reason, Shale Has Been Described as a ‘Game-Changer’”: It’s an old story by now, but hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have made accessible resources in shale rock all over this country. … For good reason, shale has been described as a “game-changer” by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the agency responsible for keeping track of the nation’s energy resources and reserves. … There’s an opportunity here for our congressional leaders to set partisanship and traditional geographical rivalries aside and recognize this new reality. It ought to be done by way of a powerful, nonpartisan, enlightened and utterly self-interested coalition that recognizes the obvious: We have the energy resources in abundance to shape a future that is prosperous and free of the fears that we have lived with for coming on a half-century. (Houston Chronicle editorial, 4/22/12)
  • Natural Gas Producers “Are Professional and Best Practices Are Spreading”: The reality is that as fracking booms through the Appalachian basin, the South and mountain West, the early wildcatting days are over. Operators are professional and best practices are spreading. (Wall Street Journal editorial, 4/20/12)

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