Gov. Kasich: Shale Drilling is Good, but OH Needs Diversity
Speaking at the Eastern Ohio Development Alliance’s annual meeting last Friday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said that although he supports shale oil and gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shales in his state, he doesn’t want to put all of Ohio’s economic eggs in one basket. He said the state needs to focus on more than just the energy sector to help elevate Ohio out of its current economic doldrums.
Gov. John Kasich, although supportive of efforts to tap the potential oil and gas resources of the Marcellus and Utica shale formation, said Friday that we cannot rely on that industry as a panacea for our economic woes.
"In this part of the state, everyone is excited and pumped up about energy," Kasich said. "God bless you. "We don’t know the full extent of it and we don’t know how it will flow. But we know we have some [oil and gas] and we know it’s good.
"This state, for too many years, relied on manufacturing and autos to drive Ohio’s economic success. That means that, when a torpedo is launched at the auto and manufacturing industry, it sinks our state economically."
Kasich said Ohio needs to take a multifaceted approach to rejuvenating economic vitality.
"What I am saying to all of you here is that we’re going to develop the resources of oil and gas. But let’s not just focus there. We need an economic development program that creates diversity within our region so that we are not held captive to what can go wrong, go awry, go amiss."*
*Cambridge (OH) The Daily Jeffersonian (Apr 29, 2012) – Kasich: Oil prospects good, but a diverse economy is needed
Just like our great Governor Cuomo, excited about the possibilities of the natural resources that New York has to offer, ( NOT) is proactive in making NY a driller friendly state, so outside companies will want to relocate ,live,and work there.( NOT) Working on getting NYers back to work while assisting other businesses to grow with the economic boom that will follow. ( NOT) Cuomo’s big idea of economic recovery, lets borrow Billions of dollars from the NY State Pension system ( that will have to be paid back with interest later) to put “some ” people back to work on rebuilding roads and bridges ( usually contracted out, with lots of corruption attached to it, for only a selective few contractors that can handle that type of work) Then I will be long out of office, and leave this huge bill for the next smuck that takes this office.I will then pat myself on the back touting how I created jobs, jobs, jobs, and then run for president of the United States in 2016. I have to run to the bathroom and throw up, now.While I was doing that, the name Barack kept coming out of my mouth. Sounds like Andy boy followed in Barrrrrracks footsteps for NY., put the State into unmanageable debt, then leave office/town when the bill is due. Great planning Gov. Kasich, putting the resource to work for the good of the State and its people, then planning for the”future”. Can you teach Andy boy, how to do that?
I’ve sitting on the sidelines for a while now watching all
the back and forth between the NG proponents and the anti’s. Rather than diving
in on all the emotional and political arguing, I’ve decided to center my
attention to just what are we fighting over here in NYS. It is about the gas
isn’t it? Taking sides seems a bit foolish when you start to really look at the
Marcellus as a geological form and how much NG does it really hold and more
importantly, where. So far I can only see that the southern tier part of the
State has enough NG to support any drilling and where any profits by the gas
companies can be made, and in the climate of low NG prices, it would seem
logical that the NG companies drill in areas where they can survive the glut
and unprofitable prices. Read the very interesting piece on this site about the
so called “line of death” and what might be or not be in NYS. One would have to
assume that no matter who or what makes NY a gas friendly state, it really is
up to the NG companies as to where they can make money. They certainly are not
going drill out of their kindness of their hearts. With this said, I have to question
the so called economic benefit New Yorkers as a whole will reap, if the
drilling activity only centers on a small area of the state. Also, I’ve heard
that some NG companies are giving up on dry plays for more lucrative “wet” plays.
How does that affect this whole scenario that has divided us as a state. You
seem to have some strong opinions on the subject and I am curious as to your assessment
of what I have observed. This is a respectful question BTW. Thanks.
Hello bigd1101, It is a breath of fresh air to finally get someone that is calm about this subject,unfortunately the Pro and Anti lines have been drawn here in NY and as always ,it;s us (pro’s) against them ( Anti’s) situation, which I believe the Anti’s wanted and achieved.You are correct that it is foolish arguing back and forth about this subject but I feel very strongly, that I must fight for my rights as a landowner. For the freedom to be able to use my property ( in this case to allow NG drilling) the way I see fit as long as it is legal and properly zoned. With that said, it is now going on 4 years that a moratorium has been in place and I have literally lost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to our NY( Liberal) inept politicians. Our neighbors in PA,OH, and WV ( Republican states of course) have reaped most all of the benefits, for now,during the recent NG boom. Leases in 2007-08 were going around $5000 per acre and royalty payments were around 18% to21 %. I know this because one of my neighbors signed a contract for that amount just before the moratorium was placed in effect. So I hope you can feel my frustration, some, when there are people from NYC upper east side with lots of political money, other Anti’s with simply no land ,and uneducated /uniformed politicians/people in general who are misinformed into a negative opinion on drilling, pulling the politicians strings to ban it or delay it.I can go on and on but want to answer some of your questions. If NY politicians made NY a so called “Gas Friendly” state, which by the way, it was, prior to the SGEIS and 2008, many drilling companies were already here, leasing properties and drilling single bore wells.Some of these wells produced handsomely, so you can imagine if they were fraced what they would have produced!!You can look up the permits on how many were issued, but with all the rhetoric and false information written about the fracing process, NY politicians do what they do best, gave a knee jerk reaction stopped companies from proceeding to collect the NG in this more efficient way,( moratorium) and basically forced these companies to look elsewhere ( our neighboring states) to make money. This ” line of death” that I just read about is new to me, but makes sense if you look at it logically. These companies for years have been doing geological studies on the rock/shale formations and have a pretty good idea where the best plays are,and where it will tend to peter out. They will test drill areas, and if they under perform basically just pullout.I would like to see a map of this so called line but have not seen one yet. One thing I do know is that my area ( Tioga County) is one of those” prime” locations.This is why I’m fighting and arguing so much and so opinionated to get this moving along. There are only so many drilling rigs to go around also. Its very expensive to move them around so drilling companies tend to stay in an area for years before they move on to new ones. NY missed the boat on being in the fore front.If you read previous news on this site, that our county( 150,000 acres) is the only one in NY so far that has a pending deal with a drilling co. named Gasfrac, and a completely different compensation proposal structure. I have not received any further information since the news hit a few weeks back. We are now awaiting a written proposal from our landowners association( Tioga County landowner Association), my brother attended a recent meeting and from that meeting we are optimistic, yet quite skeptical. You are right about the dry gas/ wet gas, prices are very low right now,(dry gas) there is a large surplus and that will soon level off. The winter was very mild and consumers have not jumped on the NG train, “yet” ( supply and demand ). But, many companies are embedded in the NE and putting there proverbial eggs in the Marcellus Shale basket. Pipelines are being built, expanded,branched. NG infrastructure is happening everywhere, little companies are being bought up by big companies, My God, Sunoco, was just purchased by a huge pipeline co.( Yesterday), this just tells me they are gearing up for the”Future”. In five years or less most vehicle will be run on CNG!! How is that for a prediction!! FYI There are two plays in the NE region( largest in the country) one is the Marcellus ( dry gas) the other is the Utica ( Wet gas which is found further down below the Marcellus and on the periphery). This was a long answer but I had to paint a picture for you.Right now wet gas is bringing in much more money then dry, that is why they switched. When, NY, finally wakes up and opens the doors , the state and its people will reap huge benefits from NG production, look at the Marcellus/ Utica Shale maps of where NG is known to be present in NY ( MDN has one on this site somewhere), hundreds of thousands of acres will be tapped, thousands of jobs created, economic booms for little town America businesses, huge tax revenues on the horizon, real estate values will rise. It has been said and now being acted upon that there is over 100 years of NG in the ground that will heat every home and fill every car in the USA. Our country and our people are hungry for this type of news,we can say good bye to OPEC for good, pull all our troops out of a war we don’t need to be in anymore. If and when this fuel is “dried up”, we should be flying around like the “Jetsons”, and you and I will be long gone. Need I say anymore? Hope this answered your question.