As women living in the Marcellus Shale region of the United States, it is important to understand what natural gas means to our families. Having seen the film Women of the Marcellus, I decided to look into what it is like to try to raise a family in an economically deprived area with an abundant natural resource under our feet.

Raising a family isn’t easy. Between picking the perfect school systems, to making sure kids have what they need as far as food and clothing, being a parent is…

Bergmann Associates, an engineering and consulting firm, demonstrates the tremendous business opportunities in the shale gas industry. Businesses like Bergmann Associates prove time and again that the natural gas industry has the ability to provide good paying jobs and opportunities for anyone.

The Marcellus and Utica Shales are massive economic engines! Study after study confirms this, showing economic growth stimulated from royalties to jobs to taxes. There are many success stories…

A recent incident in Franklin Forks, Pennsylvania, demonstrates just how easily the record can be distorted on natural gas development by special interests determined to exploit accusations, assertions and speculation as if they were facts.

Some folks reading the title ”Guilty until Proven Innocent” might not catch the error in this statement.

Public opinion has become the new justice system as a mob mentality seems to have taken over. Too often, though, the opinion,…

Credible means “offering reasonable grounds to be believed.” Consider whether the word “credible” applies to any of the dire predictions made on the first Earth Day in 1970. Ecologist Ken Watt said, “By the year 2000…there won’t be any more crude oil.” Biologist Barry Commoner said, “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation and the world as a suitable place of human habitation.” Harvard biologist George Wald said, “Civilization will end within 15 or 30…

A recent story in State Impact focused on the results of one poorly phrased and misleading question out of several in a poll that ended up showing broad public support for natural gas development. That one question suggested citizens of both Michigan and Pennsylvania desired moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing but other survey results contrasted sharply with this conclusion.

When polling results don’t fit the template, some media sources try bending the polling curve to suit their…

Recent court decisions, which one hopes will soon be further appealed, strike another blow against both property rights and rational thinking in New York State, both of which have already been in very short supply.

Well, the New York State’s Third Judicial Department has upheld the Dryden and Middlefield decisions, and our friends on the other side are doing some early crowing. It’s a disappointing but hardly unexpected decision, as readers of this blog know from observers who…

Local activists have created a new group called Energy In Denial, playing on the Energy In Depth name in a naive attempt to take their grassroots efforts to a national level. Ironically, “Energy In Denial” couldn’t be a more fitting name for its founders, although we suggest it be shortened to simply read “Denial.”

When an organization spoofs your name, you’re going to look into it. Even if that group has differing opinions from you, the fact creators feel the need to piggyback off of…

The Ithaca Commons, one of those struggling pedestrian mall projects from a couple of generations back, is undergoing an upgrade and part of the project is an expansion of natural gas service, right there in Planet Ithaca. Our readers will recall a series of posts we did called “There Ought To Be A Law.” We did a playful return to the era of that famous cartoon strip by the same name and noted how many natural gas opponents lived or worked in places that relied upon natural gas for heat. We…

A continuing education program on natural gas development took place in Heritage Hills, N.Y., last night, and it was an opportunity lost for the promotion of renewable energy. The opposition to natural gas looks at a clean-burning fuel and sees only a threat to renewables, when in fact it should see tremendous potential.

Last night I took a drive over to Heritage Hills in Westchester County, N.Y., to make a presentation to a community association as part of a continuing education…

Accurate unbiased news reporting, in the case of natural gas development, is too often harder to find than flaming water.  A recent story from Pittsburgh, which had nothing to do with natural gas development, somehow turned into an indictment of the industry, illustrating the power of imagery over facts in the hands of reporters with preconceived ideas that are just plain wrong.



I’ve always held Pittsburgh to a higher standard. Like my hometown of Buffalo, it was a rust belt city…

The debate over natural gas development nationwide is all about New York State and the debate in New York State is all about the Natural Resources Defense Council and its goals.  Those goals are contrary to the interests of landowners and ordinary New Yorkers.



We got a fair amount of reaction to our post on Cuomo’s Choice: Blue Collars or Blue Bloods and the consolidated version in the New York Post.  Kate Sinding, one of the three senior NRDC attorneys mentioned in the post, even…

Opponents of the development of natural gas in New York have been protesting everything related to the topic, including Inergy, L.P., one of the largest taxpayers in Schuyler and Tioga Counties. Cherie Messore takes a moment to look at two neighboring New York Counties and two very different reactions to the company and the services it offers.

While a small group of people protested at a proposed natural gas storage facility site in Schuyler County this week, the 20,000 residents of…

he natural gas industry is looking to use abandoned mine drainage during the hydraulic fracturing of gas wells. This innovation is currently being practiced by some operators and assists in mitigating environmental impacts. Although it is a win-win situation some ‘environmental’ groups still oppose the practice, revealing much about who they really are.

Next week we will recognize the birthday of Edwin Drake, the man who drilled the first oil well in Pennsylvania. It makes one wonder…

The time for platitudes about saving upstate New York is over. It’s time to take action. Governor Cuomo needs to put all the loose talk about acting on science, when he’s really playing politics, behind us. Upstate is dying and the Governors make-believe actions aren’t going to save it.

Candidate Andrew Cuomo said, “We must make New York the jobs capital of the nation and get unemployed New Yorkers back to work….Upstate continues to witness the crumbling of its manufacturing…

The Associated Press (AP) has noted Yoko Ono’s “Artists Against Fracking” is collecting money to influence public policy in New York but hasn’t bother registering as a lobby group. The article is worth reading and exposes the hypocrisy of the privileged 1% who attack the natural gas industry for lobbying efforts. Here we provide some additional facts the article missed.

There are hints in the Associated Press story that point to the bigger picture, when the Sustainable Markets…

It seems Governor Cuomo has decided to sell out Upstate New York and its workers by putting natural gas development on hold. Reports claim Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. convinced Cuomo the health risk was too great and he should await the results of a Pennsylvania health study for which there is no scheduled deliverable. It suggests there is a lot more to the story and, of course, there is.

Governor Cuomo didn’t put his former brother-in-law on the Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Committee out…

The Pittsburgh Technology Institute recently broke ground on its new Energy Technology Center just west of Pittsburgh in North Fayette Township. The center will provide a home base for two new programs designed to train workers for in-demand jobs in the oil and natural gas industry.

Natural gas development continues to expand across Pennsylvania, and so, too, does the opportunity for job growth in the region. The Pittsburgh Technology Institute recently broke ground on a new facility…

A wealthy township supervisor in Robinson Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania has been delaying natural gas development for local residents while he enjoys a lap of luxury and flies high.

Many residents in Robinson Township are looking for natural gas development to come to their land so they can pay bills and keep their farms so they can be passed down to future generations. The Chairman of the Board of Supervisor of the township is currently using his power to deny them this…

"Pennsylvania played an important role in our nation's history and the Dennis Farm in Susquehanna County is one shining example. Now, thanks in part to a natural gas lease with Cabot Oil and Gas, this piece of American, African-American, and Pennsylvania history is being preserved and restored. It's a story worth hearing and a project worth supporting.

If you are from Pennsylvania, chances are that you are aware of the profound role our state had in shaping the United States of…

Allegheny County is poised for growth after the County’s decision to allow oil and gas development at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The move brings with it incredible investment and future opportunity for the county and its economic growth.

Last week, the Allegheny County Council approved an ordinance authorizing the lease of 9,263 acres surrounding the Pittsburgh International Airport to CONSOL Energy for oil and natural gas development.

The vote, which passed 9-4,…