Drill Bits: Drilling Boom or Bust?

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.

July 18, 2011 | 8:57 AM

On Sunday, the New York Times Public Editor took issue with last month’s Times piece, which questioned the extent of the shale boom. The piece drew criticism from the industry, including Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon, whose own employee’s emails critical of the estimates are cited in the piece. It turns out that the original controversial story referred only to smaller, independent operators who may lose their shirts over the gas rush, not the larger energy companies like Exxon, who have recently begun to invest millions and buy up leases.
But the independent company that launched the boom, Range Resources, seems to be pumping out the gas, at least for now. Range released an operations update today that shows an 8 percent increase in production over last year. The report attributes that rise to “excellent drilling results in the Marcellus Shale and mid-continent regions.” Range recently announced plans to pull up stakes in the Barnett Shale to concentrate on their Marcellus holdings.
Speaking of small companies, SM Energy announced today it will exit the Marcellus Shale. The company owned 42,000 acres of mineral rights in McKean and Potter counties. Another independant, Endeavor International, purchased the shale holdings.
So how does all this drilling activity impact kids heading to summer camp? The Jewish Forward has a good piece about the debate among Jewish camp operators in the Poconos.