In four short years, the Marcellus Shale has gone from barley registering on national energy reports to becoming the number one most productive natural gas field in the United States, according to Powell Shale Digest and data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Read More “The Marcellus becomes No. 1 Shale for Natural Gas in U.S.”
MDN has observed that for weeks now news outlets have recycled the same story with variations on a common theme: Some university studies that have produced reports “favorable” to the drilling industry were partially funded by the drilling industry, or at some point a researcher worked for the industry, and that calls into question the findings of said studies. The latest example is on display in the left-leaning Buffalo News.
MDN is disturbed. Not because the energy industry—which by the way keeps your lights on, keeps your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, keeps relatively cheap gas in your automobile’s tank, and has helped create the most prosperous country on earth—helps fund some of these scientific studies (who else will pay to defend them?). No, we’re disturbed because the same media so wholly devoted to picking apart anything to do with fossil fuels, willfully and (we would say) criminally ignores the other side of this debate.
Let us explain with a few examples from the latest Bloomberg article:
When you’re effective at your job and your enemies don’t like it, they call you mean. Case in point: Michael Krancer, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). He’s very effective in his job as the state’s top regulator of oil and gas drilling. And anti-drillers just hate him.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story yesterday outlining just how mean he is (no doubt a badge of honor for Mr. Krancer). The story starts this way:
Read More “PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer Takes the Gloves Off”
According to the owner of a Charleston, WV construction company, Marcellus Shale drilling has “saved our cookies.” He’s referring to the economic reality that Marcellus drilling has single-handedly revived the construction industry in the Mountain State.
Read More “WV Business Owner: Marcellus Drilling “Saved Our Cookies””
Thomas L. Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, penned a column for Sunday’s edition titled, “Get it Right on Gas.” It is an instructive column and is perhaps the best example yet of the things MDN has been saying (yelling, screaming) for the past two years: Those who oppose drilling do so because of their opposition to all fossil fuels and their embrace of a mythical alternative energy nirvana future.
Here’s a sampling:
Read More “NYT Columnist Says NatGas OK for Now, But Not for Long-Term”
When one of Australia’s leading environmentalist groups, committed to sustainable and alternative energy—the Conservation Council of Western Australia—says that hydraulic fracturing can be done safely and that they will support it, we take notice.
Read More “Australian Environmentalist Group Supports Fracking”
Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
Read More “Calendar of Events for Aug 6-Aug 19, 2012 [Free]”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Aug 6, 2012”