Marcellus Shale Causes Housing Prices in SW PA to Go Up
One of the oft-repeated lies by anti-drillers is that shale drilling causes property values to tank. “No one wants to live near active drill sites with truck traffic and water contamination,” is what they say. Never mind that once the drilling is done (within a few months) the trucks are gone–and there is no water contamination. But still, perception is reality in this Alice-in-Wonderland time in which we live.
However, the realty reality in southwestern Pennsylvania, a very active Marcellus Shale drilling area, puts to bed the “lowers property value” lie by those who want to stop drilling. According to a Realtor from the RealtyTrac Network, sales of homes in SW PA are way up (12.5% per year), and property values are increasing throughout the region–by 2-4% annually. In other words, it’s a red-hot sellers market in SW PA. Why? You guessed it: the Marcellus Shale…
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The recently signed Pennsylvania Royalty Bill SB259 provides extra transparency for landowners in how royalties are calculated, but it also introduces forced pooling for some landowners with old, pre-Marcellus leases (see 
Just a few days after MDN editor Jim Willis visited Pittsburgh, a small group of 15 anti-drillers made fools of themselves in front of EQT Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Their (latest) cause? They don’t like the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) and EQT’s participation in it. They believe the CSSD legitimizes "dirty" fossil fuels, like clean-burning natural gas, and since they (irrationally) hate all fossil fuels, any effort at ensuring mining of those fuels is done safely is tantamount to killing Mother Earth. Wackos.