Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Mar 12, 2012

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

Appalachia banks on natural gas, chemical plants
Reuters
In George Vacheresse’s lifetime, Appalachia has fallen from its prime when steel mills and coal mines anchored middle-class communities and offered hope there always would be enough work to go around.

The Truth about Fracking
National Review Online
In the middle-of-frackin’-nowhere Pennsylvania, Boy Genius is showing off his giant robot: It’s about 150 feet tall, God and the almighty engineers alone know how many hundreds of tons of steel, and four big, flat duck feet on bright orange legs.

Lining Up for Fracking
WBEN-AM Buffalo
While New York regulators wrap up a four-year environmental impact study of shale-gas drilling that has driven most energy companies to other states, a Norwegian company hopes to be first in line if New York starts issuing permits.

State agencies divide impact fee money
Daily and Sunday Review
Two state agencies are making specific plans for how they will use the earmark of Marcellus Shale drilling impact fee revenue coming their way.

Commission suggests charging for river water
PittsburghLive.com
There is precedent for a program that would charge for industrial use of public water.