Responsible shale development is positively impacting small towns and big cities across Pennsylvania. These benefits – energy security, air quality, and economic development – are touted in two recent regional newspaper editorials. Here’s what they’re saying about tightly-regulated shale development, which is a blessing for Pennsylvania:

  • Marcellus Shale “Living up to its Promise of a Brighter Future”: Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania is exceeding advocates’ expectations for economic and energy benefits — and doing so safely, refuting environmental extremists’ alarmism. State and federal data show shale drilling boosting the Pittsburgh region’s energy-sector jobs by more than a third since 2005, to 46,644 in 2012. America’s seventh-largest natural gas producer in 2011, Pennsylvania now rivals Alaska and Louisiana for second place behind Texas, producing 1.4 trillion cubic feet in the first half of 2013, up 58 percent from the same year-ago period and the most since semiannual state reports began in 2010. … As James Panero writes in City Journal, it’s expected to yield 1 million manufacturing jobs by 2025, boost GDP by 0.5 percent and save households an average of $900 annually on utility bills. Shale gas also helped cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 percent from 2011 to 2012. … Safe, responsible shale gas extraction is more than living up to its promise of a brighter future for Pennsylvania and for America. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial, 8/21/13)
  • Pa.’s Marcellus Shale a “Key Employment Nest for our Region”: In the first six months of the year, Pennsylvania produced about 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, with projections for a year-end total of 3.2 trillion cubic feet. That annual number is the equivalent to about 550 million barrels of oil. The production numbers are outpacing projections, according to Bentak officials. Perhaps most significantly, Marcellus gas is starting to displace production from the Gulf of Mexico in some places. In other words, places in the Northeast that were relying on natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico or Canada five years ago are now relying on Pennsylvania-produced gas. … It is more obvious by the day that the Marcellus shale gas production is a major energy provider for the nation and a key employment nest for our region. … The best things that can happen are for the industry to continue to produce a hefty natural gas supply that moves the country toward energy independence and to do it within all environmental regulations. (Williamsport Sun-Gazette editorial, 8/25/13)

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