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Binghamton Natural Gas Summit: How Many Jobs Does Drilling (Really) Create?

Marcellus Shale Workforce Needs Assessment Beyond random speculation, is there really any way to know, scientifically and accurately, just how many drilling-related jobs are being created in the Marcellus Shale? Yes there is! And two of the speakers at the Natural Gas Development Summit held in Binghamton on March 18th at the Regency Hotel, who have extensively studied the issue, laid out their findings for the assembled group.

The speakers were Larry Michael, Executive Director for Workforce & Economic Development with the Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT), and James Ladlee, County Extension Director with Penn State Cooperative Extension. Both have put in a great deal of time studying the jobs issue. Larry Michael spent six months on the Marcellus Shale jobs issue as a contributing author of PCT’s Marcellus Shale Workforce Needs Assessment study.

What follows are MDN’s notes on this informative session. But we won’t make you read to the end for an answer. According to Messrs. Michael and Ladlee’s findings, every well drilled in the Marcellus Shale generates the equivalent of 12 full-time jobs, in perpetuity—for at least 20 years, as long as the well is active. The slightly longer explanation is, there are many people who work for varying periods of time on a well project, but if you add all of their time together, it would work out to 12 people full-time, ongoing, working directly or indirectly on the well project.

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Binghamton Natural Gas Summit: Video Interview with Bryant La Tourette

At the Binghamton Natural Gas Development Summit held on March 18 at the Binghamton Regency Hotel, Marcellus Drilling News had the pleasure of speaking with Bryant La Tourette, Vice President of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), the organization sponsoring the event. Bryant is also the president of the Oxford Land Group, a landowner coalition in Chenango County, NY. Bryant unveiled the brand new JLCNY website at the Summit. In our interview, he briefed MDN about the JLCNY and it’s mission, and told us a bit about the new website.

The JLCNY is made up of 37 member landowner coalitions from 17 counties in New York State. In all, there are 800,000 acres and 70,000 people represented in the combined 37 member coalitions. Bryant said to think of the the JLCNY as “the next Farm Bureau,” referring to the American Farm Bureau, an advocacy group for farmers and others who work in agriculture, to give them a voice. In the same way, the JLCNY seeks to give a voice to landowners who want to profit from their land via natural gas drilling.

The new website, which can be found at //jlcny.org, provides information for landowners from the very beginning stages of signing a lease through receiving royalty payments and beyond. Bryant points out, however, that the site will be particularly helpful as a resource for landowners who have already signed. For those landowners, it will answer the question, “What comes next?”

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Binghamton Natural Gas Summit: Opening Remarks and Scene-Setting with Scott Kurkoski

Scott Kurkoski Marcellus Drilling News attended the Natural Gas Development Summit held in Binghamton on March 18th at the Regency Hotel. The event was organized and sponsored by the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York. There were about 150 people in the audience, made up of landowners, people from the drilling industry (lawyers, energy companies, engineering companies and others), and the press. It was a half day event, starting at 9:30 am and ending at 12:45 pm. MDN will run a series of posts to cover the presentations. This article contains the opening remarks delivered by Scott Kurkoski, a lawyer specializing in mineral rights with Levene, Gouldin & Thompson. Scott was one of the chief organizers of the event and master of ceremonies.

He opened by stating the purpose of the meeting is to have a discussion about the issues, with an aim to move the issue of drilling in New York State forward. He thanked Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala for hosting the event and for her efforts on behalf of landowners.

Scott next provided the background for where we are now in New York, and how we got here. In 1992, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation created a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) to govern oil and gas drilling in New York. Since then, newer technologies (horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing or “fracing”) have come along and the DEC, under direction from the Governor’s office, drafted Supplemental (new) regulations to account for these new technologies and their use.

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DISH, Texas Mayor Calvin Tillman Visits Binghamton – Marcellus Drilling News was There

This will necessarily be a long article. As a regular reader of Marcellus Drilling News, you have come to expect brief articles highlighting information useful for landowners and other interested parties in the Marcellus Drilling debate. Last night, your faithful scribe attended a local meeting in Binghamton, NY at Binghamton’s East Middle School, to hear DISH, Texas Mayor Calvin Tillman and his views on natural gas drilling. I went with an open mind to evaluate whether Mr. Tillman and the other speaker of the evening—lawyer Helen Slottje from Ithaca—would present information that would challenge my views that drilling can be done safely when it’s done right.

I would say it’s a fair statement that if you went to the meeting as a supporter of drilling, or as an opponent, your view was not changed by the presentations. I attended on behalf of the average landowner, even though I do not have land for lease in the Marcellus myself. I tried to be your eyes and ears at the meeting. Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with, nor compensated by, anyone in the drilling debate on either side of the debate. I’m just an interested blogger and advocate for landowners and the rights of private property owners.

This is an account of what happened last night…

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