Antero Resources Spending $1B, Employing 2,000 in WV in 2015
Antero Resources’ chief administrative officer, Al Schopp, shared an update on Antero’s activity in WV at the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association’s annual meeting two weeks ago at Oglebay Resort. Schoop’s update was enlightening. Although Antero has cut back from running 15 drilling rigs in WV last year to only 6 this year (due to the low price of natural gas), they remain active and employ 2,000 people in the state–that’s LOCAL people. Since 2009 Antero has spent nearly $5 billion (!) in WV. Some of that money–$500 million–was spent to create a pipeline system to deliver water to drill pads so they don’t have to clog narrow mountain roads with thousands of truck trips. The company spends $20 million a year to employ safety consultants at every major Antero construction, drilling and fracking operation 24/7/365. How long does Antero plan to be a major presence in the Mountain State, and what’s ahead in the near-term? Read on…
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Advanced Power Services announced yesterday they will build a second mega-electric generating plant that taps into and uses Ohio’s Utica Shale. This new plant will generate a whopping 1,100 megawatts of electricity and be located in Columbiana County, OH. Advanced just broke ground in July on a 700-megawatt plant in Carroll County (see 
Hey anti-drillers who like to lie about the benefits of fracking: Tell us again how there’s no positive economic impact from the shale industry. It’s all just smoke and mirrors and the only ones who make money are Big Oil & Gas. Tell us how the jobs are “temporary” and the money from the industry illusory. Then we’ll tell you about the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area, comprised of Belmont County, OH along with Marshall and Ohio counties in WV. The Wheeling MSA’s gross domestic product grew by 9.5% from 2013 to 2014, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce. That’s the fifth fastest growing MSA in the country–out of 381 MSAs. Oh, and the reason it’s growing so fast? Yep–the Marcellus and Utica Shale boom happening in the region…
MDN spotted an interesting report released yesterday by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The report evaluates the change in GDP by metropolitan areas across the county. What the heck is GDP? It is gross domestic product (GDP), one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a region’s economy. GDP represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period. Think of it as the size of the economy in a given metropolitan (or state or country) region. What is interesting about the report to MDN is that it mentions shale energy and the Marcellus in particular as one reasons why certain areas of the country expanded. When you look at the map (below) we want you to note two things: (1) Most of the metro areas/regions in upstate NY are shrinking, rapidly; and (2) those areas in northeast and southwest PA, eastern OH and northern WV that have Marcellus/Utica drilling are expanding, rapidly. It is no accident. The Marcellus/Utica is a huge economic engine…
If this doesn’t beat all: New York has banned fracking as potentially unsafe to the health and welfare of its citizens–but its citizens, particularly in New York City, are benefiting from fracked shale gas (from Pennsylvania) in a huge way. Electricity prices for the five boroughs of NYC have plummeted because of the abundant, cheap and clean-burning natural gas from PA’s Marcellus Shale, used in electric generating plants that serve Gotham. In fact, NYC’s electric rates are now at parity or falling below the electric rates in Washington, DC!…
Pennsylvania’s shale drilling industry is pushing back against the last minute changes made to PA’s oil and gas regulations commonly known as Article 78. In April the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) turned up the heat on newly-elected Gov. Tom Wolf and PennFuture Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley with a scorching hot letter (see 
New Jersey natural gas customers of Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G), the very people who will benefit from the proposed PennEast Pipeline, will see another 5.7% drop in their natgas bills this winter. PSE&G, which serves approximately three-fourths of all NJ residents, says because of the nearby Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale, since 2009 their natgas customers have seen a whopping 47% decrease in rates. That equates to an average savings of $792 per year! Thanks to the Marcellus Shale and the miracle of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, NJ’s air is cleaner, NJ consumers pay less for natural gas, and the gas is home grown energy from a neighboring state–providing jobs and making us more secure…
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is having trouble getting anyone to notice he’s running for president (predictably, nobody cares when an establishment RINO runs), will swoop in at a press conference today at 3 pm in Belmont County, OH to announce that foreigners from Thailand-based PTT Global and Marubeni Corp. of Tokyo will drop $100 million on Ohio to conduct engineering and design work for a previously announced potential ethane cracker plant in the county (see 
A very old and trite but true saying: Q: How do you know when a politician, like NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is lying? A: When he opens his mouth. Our illustrious man-child governor was in Syracuse yesterday to drop off a bag of money with $50 million, and an impertinent reporter had the gall to ask His Lordship about the secession rally held in Chenango County on Sunday (see 
The New England Coalition for Affordable Energy, a pro-fossil fuel group backed by business groups and unions in throughout all six New England states, issued the results of a study they commissioned that asks the question, What will happen in New England if energy infrastructure, like natural gas pipelines, does not get built? The study, titled “The Economic Impacts of Failing to Build Energy Infrastructure in New England” (full copy below), finds the impacts–if these projects are not built–are dire: Electric ratepayers will pay $5.4 billion in higher electricity costs; 52,000 private sector jobs will be lost; household spending will go down a collective $12.5 billion; $9 billion of investment and 115,600 jobs that would have been created by such projects will never happen; and the list goes on. Here’s the announcement and summary of the findings, followed by a full copy of the study…