Walker Talks Marcellus During Clearfield County Visit

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

September 21, 2011 | 11:15 AM

Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Alan Walker, who made news this summer by advocating additional drilling in Pennsylvania’s state forests, talked Marcellus Shale during a visit to Clearfield County.
From GantDaily.com:

Walker discussed what Pennsylvania has to offer and what his vision for the state entails. Walker touched on the Marcellus Shale play going on and what that could mean for the state. He called it, “A real game changer.” Walker said that in June Pennsylvania became a net exporter of gas mined from the Marcellus Shale. He said the real ecomonic benefit of natural gas is where it is consumed, not produced.
“We don’t simply want our gas extracted an exported,” said Walker.
He also touched on the royalties and how to better keep the money brought in from the gas play in the region. He was asked later about impact fees on gas well drilling. He indicated that he doesn’t think impact fees are a bad idea. He stated that it essentially guarantees the money returns to local areas, versus a tax, which would go into the state’s general fund.