Fear Mongers at Work in Pennsylvania

Despite there never being a documented case of hydro-fracking ever contaminating a drinking water supply, a Pittsburgh politician is trying to swell the ranks of the uninformed anti-drilling community and attempting to ban shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania. Generating fear is a great tool of professional politicians and, if 'played' properly, can help get them elected into office or help them stay in office.

One can't help but wonder why these same politicians aren't outraged and demanding legislation to stop the transportation of all petroleum products (gasoline, diesel, heating oil, crude oil). The amount of fresh water contamination due to accidents involving these products absolutely dwarfs any contamination that has ocurred as a result of natural gas drilling. But then, that might mean they would have to ride a bicycle to their next fund raiser ... held in an unheated room.

Marcellus Is The Place To Be

Below is an excerpt from a recent article on Forbes.com written by Christopher Helman.


"Engineers at Range Resources discovered the Marcellus gas in 2004, giving Range a two-year head start in scooping up 1.3 million acres of leases. Marcellus' choice spots, 6,000 feet underground, hold 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 20 years of current U.S. demand. "Because the Marcellus is cheap to develop and so close to market, it will make other plays in the South and Midwest uneconomic," says Russell Braziel at gas market forecaster Bentek. "If you want to be in the gas business, you'll have to be in the Marcellus."