Cawley Continues to Tout Shale Jobs

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.

August 24, 2011 | 3:45 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Cawley speaks to reporters after a July Marcellus Shale Advisory Commision meeting

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley is bopping around the state visiting factories that he says are benefitting from the Marcellus Shale boom. Cawley visited the Weiler Corporation’s Cresco plant on Tuesday. Weiler contributes parts to the pipeline industry. Karl Weiler told the Pocono Record that Marcellus Shale accounts for “about 3 percent” of his business.
Today, he toured Cleveland Brothers Equipment in Wilkes-Barre, which distributes heavy equipment. Cawley put out a press release about how the Marcellus Shale gas boom boosts jobs even in areas where drilling is not happening. The Lieutenant Governor recently chaired the Marcellus Shale Commission, which made recommendations to Governor Corbett on how to regulate and promote drilling for natural gas. Estimates on the number of jobs created by gas drilling in the state vary widely. But the pro-drilling Cawley says the gas industry has generated 72,000 new hires in the last 18 months.