Chesapeake's CEO Speaks to Forbes About Fracking, Landmen, and His 100,000-Bottle Wine Collection

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon tells Forbes.com in an interview posted Wednesday that gas drilling opponents ignore the economic, environmental and national security benefits of gas development because they’re angry that cheap gas is burning brighter as an energy option than renewable sources such as wind and solar.
Some of Forbes’ questions, which were posed and answered via email, come across as pretty tame, e.g.:  “It’s clear that as long as wells are cased and cemented properly, fracking is safe, right?” Answer: “100%!”
But McClendon’s answers are lengthy, candid, and eye-opening. He admits to problems of methane migration in Pennsylvania, but says the cases impact relatively few people. And he talks about what a good deal it is to lease mineral rights from land owners for cheap, in exchange for the bountiful amounts of shale gas that lie underneath.
McClendon also describes selling off 75 percent of his wine collection after the market crash of 2008, his vision for natural gas pumps at truck stops across the nation, and why he wants Chesapeake to reimburse him for his map collection. (It’s hanging on the walls of Chesapeake’s headquarters). A fun and fascinating read, check it out.

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