Scranton Times-Tribune In May, a Penn State University study funded by the natural gas industry said development in the Marcellus Shale region would create 88,000 jobs in 2010. With unemployment up in the state, Bradford County has bucked trends with an unemployment rate that has gone down in the last year. Other rural counties in the region have seen joblessness increase at rates much less than the state and more urban counties, such as Lackawanna and Luzerne.

Scranton Times-Tribune With the boom in Marcellus Shale natural gas development throughout the region, area educational institutions are growing to keep up with work force demands. New training, certification and degree programs are being created at local schools to ensure local job skills are tailored to white- and blue-collared job needs related to the natural gas drilling industry.

WICZ-TV A documentary portraying the negative effects of gas drilling is getting negative feedback. The film was recognized at the Sundance Film Festival but Pennsylvania's department of environmental protection secretary John Hanger--who's been criticized by environmental groups, says the documentary is fundamentally dishonest and full of propaganda.

Sayre Morning Times Dr. Don Siegel said Thursday he is tired of all the hype. He is tired, he said, of seeing what he calls “an enormous amount of misinformation” about natural gas drilling, specifically hydraulic fracturing, being distributed and broadcast by the media. Siegel, a hydrogeology professor at Syracuse University, was part of a five-member panel who spoke at a news conference Thursday at the Holiday Inn Arena.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Natural gas drilling rigs are using thousands of tons of pipe and tubing products every day in the booming Marcellus shale region, experts said yesterday.

Ithaca Journal According to Syracuse University Earth Sciences professor Don Siegel, these concerns are more myth than reality. "This is the first environmental issue that I've thrown my hat into the ring on," he said.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sen. Mary Jo White While the scale of Marcellus Shale drilling is new to Pennsylvania, we have had a robust oil and gas industry in the commonwealth for decades. Any comparisons to past industrial extraction, such as coal mining, which occurred before the enactment of environmental laws, are simply inaccurate.

Pottstown Mercury, Congressman Joe Pitts As you are no doubt aware, the United State receives the majority of our oil from overseas sources. Unfortunately, we are dependent on volatile regions and despotic regimes for the petroleum that runs our cars. Just a few years ago it appeared that the United States would soon be dependent on foreign nations not only for oil, but also for natural gas.

Scranton Times-Tribune, Editorial A $500,000 upgrade of the historic rail yard in Fell Twp., which was built in 1825 to help ignite the region's coal boom, is a good example of the region's new gas industry's ability to boost overall economic development and of the growing importance of rail freight to the region.

Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, LTE As a farmer in the Marcellus Shale region, I have a different opinion on natural gas leasing and the effect on agriculture and the environment in Pennsylvania.