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Dueling Drilling Conferences To Bring Insight And Protest To Philadelphia

Governor Corbett speaks to the Shale Gas Insight conference in September 2011.

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Governor Corbett speaks at a Marcellus Shale Coalition conference last September.


Drilling industry leaders and fractivists will meet again (separately) in Center City Philadelphia this week to rally and inform their constituents.
For the third year in a row, the Marcellus Shale Coalition is hosting the Shale Insight (formerly known as “Shale Gas Insight”) Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center which brings together some big names in the industry. There’s a lot of elbow-rubbing with policymakers and politicians. But it’s also a chance to hear about what’s next for domestic energy production.
The two-day conference starts Wednesday and will feature a number of high-profile speakers. This year, the MSC is bringing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to cap things off on Thursday. The former Republican presidential candidate who currently hosts CNN’s “Crossfire” will be giving a speech to more than 1,000 attendees.
The event often brings out protestors calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or fracking. This year, environmental groups are collecting water for Pennsylvanians who say their wells have been tainted by nearby drilling operations.
Anti-fracking activists protest gas drilling at Philadelphia's Love Park.

Tom MacDonald / WHYY/Newsworks

Anti-fracking activists protest gas drilling at Philadelphia's Love Park.


They’ll also hold their own Freedom from Fracking Conference at the Friends Center to discuss the environmental impacts of drilling on Pennsylvania. Wyoming rancher John Felton, who was featured in the Josh Fox documentary “Gasland,” will deliver a keynote address.

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