When Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley spoke about natural gas drilling at the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors’ annual conference this morning, he had the air of a televangelist. “You see, Marcellus Shale is a game-changer for our commonwealth,” he told the crowd. “Not just in the gas-producing area, but all across the commonwealth.” Addressing [...]
Yesterday, we told you about a preliminary Penn State University study showing no correlation between Pennsylvania’s natural gas drilling boom and crime rates. The study found calls to the State Police and arrests have stayed relatively level in Pennsylvania’s top drilling counties. In a phone interview with StateImpact Pennsylvania today, author Gary Zajac stressed the [...]
Last summer, StateImpact Pennsylvania reported 911 calls had increased in seven of Pennsylvania’s eight busiest drilling counties. That wasn’t because rig workers were breaking more laws, county officials told us. It was simply a matter of more people moving into these communities. Lisa Rice, who runs Tioga County’s 911 center, said many of the calls [...]
On February 3, 2011, President Obama traveled to State College to announce a new energy efficiency program. He wanted to lower commercial energy bills by $40 billion, and improve the country’s energy efficiency by twenty percent. A year is a long time. The fact Obama gave a shout-out to former Penn State President Graham Spanier [...]
A dizzying fall from grace is in store for the Pennsylvania Farm Show’s famed butter sculpture. Through tomorrow, the thousand-pound work of art will be the star attraction of the annual indoor agriculture festival. Thousands of people have snapped pictures of the refrigerated sculpture, which depicts a boy leading his prize-winning calf through a county [...]
In the far northern corner of Harrisburg’s Farm Show complex – past the food court, the tractor displays and the model cabins in the Exhibition Hall – there’s a row of energy displays. The Marcellus Shale Coalition has a booth. So does America’s Natural Gas Alliance. Solar energy advocates are represented, along with realtors selling [...]
Proof day-to-day life moves forward at embattled Penn State University: the school is hosting a three-day Marcellus Summit this week. From the summit’s website:
The National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency, awarded Penn State University $2.5 million dollars for multi-disciplinary research and a program aimed at engaging the public in understanding issues surrounding natural gas drilling. PSU’s “Marcellus Matters” is a program designed to educate adults through community-based programs aimed at individuals who will be making decisions about [...]
Another member of Governor Corbett’s cabinet is singing Marcellus Shale drilling’s praises. Appearing in State College today, Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele credited natural gas extraction with creating thousands of jobs throughout Pennsylvania. “This kind of job creation throughout our economy is why Governor Corbett is doing all he can to support Marcellus Shale [...]
A new report by researchers at Penn State University and the Pennsylvania College of Technology says natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale created about 23,500 jobs in 2009. The results contradict an earlier study released by Penn State last year that credits Marcellus Shale drilling with creating about 44,000 new jobs in 2009. The [...]
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