Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Monday, Oct 24, 2011

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

Tactical Recruiting Effort Pays Off
The Wall Street Journal
Four years ago, Range Resources Corp. had only a single employee in the western half of Pennsylvania. Today, the natural-gas company employs 400 at its regional headquarters south of Pittsburgh. And it’s still hiring, in the face of fierce competition for skilled workers.

Big business, big demands
Waynesburg Observer-Reporter
The demand for local people with vocational training to fill everything from entry-level to skilled positions isn’t limited to the big energy-related companies that are working in the Marcellus Shale.

Small community focus of big Shale controversy
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
South Fayette is one of dozens of Pennsylvania communities to regulate gas drilling, but one of only two being sued by Range Resources for doing so.

Steve Israel: Fracking poll results appear legit
Middletown Times Herald-Record
I must admit I was a tad skeptical about the new poll that says about 7 of 10 Sullivan County residents don’t want the horizontal gas drilling method of fracking in their town – just about the same number who support local zoning to restrict that drilling.

Rural Ohio is the Wild West as gas and oil companies compete for drilling rights
Cleveland The Plain Dealer
Larry Cain stands in the pasture of the family’s Belmont County farm. Cain is the chairman of the Smith-Goshen Land Owners Group, an informal group of more than 500 land owners who own a total of 43,000 acres and are dealing with gas and oil companies as a bloc in a strategy to gain strong property…

Marcellus shale: The promise & pitfalls
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Nick Loris is a policy analyst in the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. A native of Quakertown, Pa., he researches and writes about energy prices and the economic effects of environmental policies and regulations.

New York Gas Drillers Face Road Blocks Despite End of Drilling Ban
International Business Times
After years of waiting, they would finally be able to exploit the richest deposit of natural gas in the country. But as companies delve into new regulations for drilling in New York, they’re discovering a bitter reality: half the land they had leased for drilling may now be out of bounds.