Williamsport, PA – Boom City Keeps Optimism As Drilling Slows
Andrew Maykuth Philadelphia Inquirer November 24. 2013
WILLIAMSPORT — The Marcellus Shale industry, which arrived in this northern Pennsylvania city five years ago and turned Williamsport into the seventh-fastest-growing area in the nation, appears to have lost some momentum.
Economic activity in this city affectionately known as “Billtown” has subsided noticeably in the last year as the pace of drilling natural gas wells slowed in response to low gas prices.
Statewide, exploration companies drilled 30 percent fewer wells in 2012 …
Economists Question Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Jobs Claims
Marie Cusick StateImpact PA/NPR November 6, 2013
Governor Tom Corbett, who faces tough poll numbers when it comes to his hopes for re-election, formally launched his campaign today in Pittsburgh, highlighting the state’s Marcellus Shale industry as one of the key successes of his time in office.
“The energy industry in Pennsylvania is now supporting the livelihoods of over 200,000 people and their families who work in good-paying middle class jobs,” he told the crowd.
But economists say that jobs …
Environmentalists, Labor Unions Seek Common Ground to Fight Global Warming and Protect Jobs
Washington Post October 20, 2013
PITTSBURGH — The nation’s largest labor unions are ready and willing to help fight global warming, but are cautioning environmentalists that workers need new clean-energy jobs before existing industries are shut down.
The four-day Power Shift conference in Pittsburgh is training young people to stop coal mining, fracking for oil and gas, and nuclear power, but organizers also want workers to join the battle against climate change.
“Global warming is here, and we can work and …
Chesapeake Energy Layoffs Hit Bradford County
Marie Cusick StateImpact PA August 20, 2013
Chesapeake Energy’s corporate restructuring has lead to layoffs in the company’s busiest hub of its Pennsylvania operations– Bradford County.
Last week Chesapeake’s newly appointed CEO Doug Lawler announced the departure of four top executives. The company has also laid off staff in its Athens field office, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Several analysts contacted by StateImpact Pennsylvania declined to comment …
What Boom? Industry Pundits Claim Thousands of Jobs Will Be Created, But Numbers Don’t Quite Add Up
Rachel Morgan Times Online May 4, 2013
Industry, legislators, geologists — even the press — called it a game-changer.
They predicted it would create hundreds of thousands — even millions — of jobs. They talked about energy independence, waves of new industry flocking to the area. But today, years into the Marcellus shale boom, the numbers tell a different story.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is now higher than the national average.
The state lost 5,800 jobs last year, ranking 49th in …
Conservation Districts Disappointed with State’s Funding Adjustments
Jennifer Reeger Tribune-Review March 10, 2-13
Greg Phillips had hoped that the Westmoreland County Conservation District would eventually be able to use Marcellus shale impact fees to start a pilot program for gas drillers to work with landscape architects and erosion control specialists to restore farmland and forested areas.
Instead, he might have to cut programs.
Under Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget, the impact fee money that is flowing to Pennsylvania’s 66 conservation districts will replace state …
Marcellus Shale Gas Boom Expected to Slow in 2013
Kevin Begos Associated Press 02/15/2013 T
PITTSBURGH—Energy experts say the boom in Marcellus Shale natural gas production will slow this year but not because there’s any lack of supply. The slowdown is happening because drillers are waiting for pipelines to expand, new markets to develop and wholesale prices to rise.
“The hiring has tapered off. What we see is a holding pattern,” said Kathryn Klaber, the president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group.
That’s a big …
BoomTown: How Drilling Has Changed Towanda, PA
Scott Detrow StateImpact PA / NPR December 10, 2012
What does a drilling boom look like?
In Towanda, Bradford County, it looks like trucks rumbling across Veterans Memorial Bridge and down Main Street. The vehicles, hauling water, chemicals, equipment, sand and dirt more to and from natural gas drilling sites, have been a steady presence since 2008, when hydraulic fracturing began in surrounding Bradford County.
“The traffic here is horrendous,” says Joe Benjamin, a recent college graduate who lives in …
After the Boom in Natural Gas
Michael Stravato New York Times October 20, 2012
The crew of workers fought off the blistering Louisiana sun, jerking their wrenches to tighten the fat hoses that would connect their cement trucks to the Chesapeake Energy drill rig — one of the last two rigs the company is still using to drill for natural gas here in the Haynesville Shale.
At its peak, Chesapeake ran 38 rigs in the region. All told, it has sunk more than 1,200 …
In Western PA, an Energy Boom Not Visibly Stifled
Jeff Swensen The New York Times June 20, 2012
SMITHFIELD, Pa. — From his farm nestled far from the big cities, in the wooded hills above the Monongahela and Cheat Rivers, David Headley has not heard much about the battles in Washington over regulations that Republicans say are stifling a domestic energy revolution.
For three years, he and his wife, Linda, have wrestled with the land men, natural gas drillers and pipeline builders who are turning this …
