Member Spotlight: Douglas Berkley Jr.



Douglas Berkley Jr. was laboring in relative online marketing obscurity for a Pittsburgh newspaper when he discovered his passion for the shale business. Now he works for a company that is part of the shale space, and he runs a…

EID's Shawn reports on 2012's Top 12 Utica Shale investments:

"In 2012, Utica Shale development brought Ohio significant investments from companies looking to make our state its home.  With the year winding down, it seemed fitting to recap some of the bigger announcements that happened over the past year.  Giving a look to what we’ve seen here in the past 12 months, we can expect 2013 to bring even more exciting news for eastern Ohio.

V&M Star Produces First Tubular Pipe…

The film Promised Land debuted at the box office this weekend, and while we will have to wait to see how it did with the general public, it’s not scoring too high with movie critics.

The film Promised Land officially opened this weekend and a lot of people are curious about whether it will be successful. As with any major Hollywood film, the initial litmus test will be how well the it does opening weekend. The pre-release showings weren’t so hot. Unfortunately, more detailed…

One good way to gauge the positive impact shale development is having on Ohio’s economy is observing the growth and investment in its industrial parks.  EID has reported on the incredible gains of the Wellsville Intermodal Park and several Mahoning Valley…

Earlier this year the New York Department of Environmental Conservation indicated that public comments on the SGEIS precipitated a need for a review of public health concerns. It turns out DEC had the review completed all along and kept the information from the public. Begging the question, would the release of a report contradicting a loud and vocal minority of activists harm the administration’s reputation too much – or did they simply drop the ball and are now trying to cover their…

EID's Mike updates our break down on the report from Ohio State researchers predicting “only” 20,000 new jobs from Utica Shale development:

"Update (12/27/12): It has been just over a year since the release of the Partridge-Weinstein report, and over fifteen months since the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program released their…

Link to the WSJ OpEd >

The agency's groundwatercontamination finding is undermined by the U.S. Geological Survey.

By KEITH MAUCK

It has been four decades since Richard Nixon launched "Project Independence" with the goal of making the United…

There’s been some argument recently over who is allowed to post on our blog and Facebook page. Our policy has always been to allow posting of opinions opposite from our own and let the facts speak for themselves, but our opponents’ websites and social media don’t seem to operate that way. They are, in fact, making it up – big time.

Wendy Lee, Bloomsburg professor and natural gas opponent, thought she had received a late Christmas present earlier yesterday when she was somehow…

EID's Mike reports the US Chamber of Commerce's study showing job growth coming to states around the nation because of shale development:

"This week the United States Chamber of Commerce, through its Institute for 21st Century Energy, released part two of a three-part series studying the topic of shale benefits state by state in a study called America’s New Energy Future. The comprehensive study was…

Simultaneously with a whole lot of political maneuvering apparently intended to confuse everyone, characteristic of New York State, the Cuomo Administration has released a set of revised regulations for natural gas development using high-volume hydraulic fracturing.  



The New York State Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) on hydraulic fracturing languishes but the Department of Environmental Conservation published, late last…

Why don't you join me this Thursday as I attempt to gain some perspective. I’m long over due for a timeout. Perhaps a day, or two, to consider the life that I’ve been blessed to live. How about you? If so, then quit scrutinizing over the recent election; whether your guy won or lost. Forgive your…

Speculative fears are used by agenda-driven groups to suggest something’s hidden and must be found about hydraulic fracturing, but the process and fluids are an open book, so complete and mundane as to be boring to anyone interested in the facts. The truth is this; items arguably the safest of all are the ones most likely to be proprietary.

Some people are never happy. When I first became interested in natural gas as a landowner some four years ago, there was considerable controversy…

Nicole sorts through the “everyone’s an expert” mentality on natural gas development to get to the heart of who the real experts are on this topic (NOTE: It’s not the actors or politically correct academics).

There is a lot of information circulating in the media and on the internet about natural gas development. Much of this stems from meetings held around the area where so-called experts step up to the plate in an attempt to educate the public.  But, how do…

Link to My Washington Examiner OpEd

Predictions of U.S. dominance in the world oil market are a stunning reversal from the grim energy forecasts of a few years ago. Headlines are trumpeting that the United States could soon…

Many oil and gas leases throughout Pennsylvania are on the verge of expiring due to the gas companies’ inability to “hold” the property under the lease terms.  Gas companies holding expiring leases are often approaching landowners and seeking an “extension” of the expiring Oil and Gas Lease.  These extensions typically range from six (6) months to two (2) years, but can be for much longer.

Landowners who receive offers to extend their existing Gas Lease should contact…

Cris Pasto has been participating in a lively, but friendly email debate on natural gas versus other energy sources. Here’s how Cris responded to suggestions by his email correspondent that burning firewood and relying upon renewables are preferable to natural gas development.

Burning Wood in Your Home

Today, I got to thinking more about the idea of everyone burning firewood. Mind you, we burned firewood all of our lives until about year 2000 and I hope to never go back to it.…

If you search “fracking” on the internet, you’ll find one anecdotal story after another littering websites supposedly offering a “real” look at natural gas development. All of them, of course, are negative in tone.  As someone who was on the fence on this topic only a couple of years ago, I can attest to how difficult this can make it for someone searching for honest-to-goodness facts on the development process.  It can be downright exhausting.  The advice hammered into us over many years of…

Natural gas opponents are looking for opportunities to benefit from a prospective natural disaster by capturing photos and videos of development sites impacted by a hurricane that is just hitting our area.

Readers of this blog will recall the infamous picture of a flooded natural gas rig PennEnvironment put out last year. You know…the one that turned out to be from Pakistan. Well, it appears natural gas opponents haven’t learned anything and are waiting with anxious anticipation to…

A landowner leasing multiple parcels to an Oil and Gas Company should generally seek to lease the multiple parcels on separate Oil and Gas Leases.  When multiple parcels are listed on the same Oil and Gas Lease the Gas Company can typically “hold” all of the parcels under lease by merely meeting the minimum Lease requirement(s) to “extend” the gas lease on any one of the individually identified Leased parcels.



Oil and Gas Leases typically “describe” the “Leasehold”,…

Ever since the early 1970’s the public has assumed the U.S. is running out of domestic sources of energy. The OPEC oil crisis of 1973 reinforced this idea as people waited in long lines to buy gasoline at skyrocketing prices. Much of the current opposition to natural gas development stems from the persistent narrative that energy is scarce and all fossil fuels are bad for the environment.

These ideas have been repeated so many times they have become unquestioned articles of faith in…