Important Details You Should Know about the Marcellus Show

Learn whose been taking the money gifts. - The Money Machine

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With enormous amounts of Marcellus Shale gas to be tapped, drillers from outside of Pennsylvania are rushing to set up shop in Pennsylvania. Interest is also high in other areas from New York to Tennessee. Some gas industry officials claim there could be enough natural gas to meet the energy demands of the nation for 10 or 15 years or longer. Marcellus gas has created a land rush in Pennsylvania reminiscent to the “gold rush” a 150 years ago when Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well at Titusville.

Geologists believe there could be upwards of 500 trillion cubic feet of gas as far down as a mile below the surface. Last year, US consumers used 23 trillion cubic feet of gas. Currently, there are 4,000 active Marcellus wells in Pennsylvania and each typical well has the potential to generate $4 million for property owners. We are talking about huge sums of money to be realized across much of Appalachia.

The newly developed technologies used to extract the gas are relatively new and called fracturing or fracking. About 7 million gallons of water, sand, and toxic chemicals and other “secret” ingredients are pumped into the wells under great pressure to fracture the shale to release the gas. 

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is attempting to identify all the native trout streams in Pennsylvania as Marcellus Gas production increases in order to protect the streams.

The rush to grab the riches, combined with new technologies has created some serious environmental problems. In Pennsylvania, 1,435 incidents have been reported to DEP. Water wells have been contaminated, creeks and rivers have been damaged by pollutants, homes have had to be evacuated because of high gas levels, farm animals quarantined because they drank contaminated water and there have been serious explosions at drilling sights. The EPA is currently conducting hearings into the safety of the new technology.

UPDATE:

On September 15, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell shut down an intelligence gathering operation designed to gather information on opponents of Marcellus Shale drilling. The information and the program was operated by Pennsylvania Homeland Security Department. This is an amazing and quite remarkable story. The person in charge of the program designed to get information on suspected environmental terrorists (people who question the safety of the drilling), James Powers, was not fired. One has to wonder about what these folks were thinking?

With big money rolling in and the potential for more mega-dollars, the industry's lobbyists are spreading it around.

The Political Money Machine

Pennsylvania has had a long history with gas and oil drilling.

In Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, has compiled a list of politicians who have accepted thousands of dollars of money from various Marcellus gas well drillers and their lobbyists. The environmental coalition, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, is conducting a statewide tour to force the Pennsylvania Legislature to adopted  a severance tax on the Marcellus Gas drilling industry. 

Also, a new Web site, MarcellusMoney.Org, is tracking the donations to politicians from the Marcellus Gas industry. Included in the list are the companies with the worst records; Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, East Resources LLC, and Chief Oil and Gas LLC and who they are giving money too.

For a list of the all companies donating the money and in what amounts, click here.

For a list of the candidates and politicians who are accepting the money, click here.

Marcellus Drilling on Public Land

In much of western Pennsylvania, the minerals rights under the surface are not owned by the public. Oil Creek State Park is one example. A recent Supreme Court ruling will allow three wells to be drilled at the public park since the mineral rights are privately owned. The Belden & Blake Corp., a Houston, Texas company with offices in Pleasantville, Crawford County will be drilling at the popular public park.

Allegheny National Forest, the only National Forest in Pennsylvania, is comprised of 513,000 acres and 12,000 active wells. In Mercer County, five Marcellus Gas wells have been completed at Goddard State Park.

Pennsylvania has no policy regarding privately held mineral rights for surface land which is used for public parks and recreation. Some groups see the solution as being based on a tax on Marcellus Gas wells being used to buy back the mineral rights. The Marcellus Gas proposed tax could be used to fund the buy back. The tax will be discussed in the legislature in the next several weeks. However, the tax is largely unpopular with the drilling companies.  Pennsylvania, however, is the only state without a tax on Marcellus Gas.

The proposed Marcellus Gas Tax is becoming a heated election issue in Pennsylvania. Dem. candidate for governor Ornarato now favors the tax; The Republican candidate Corbett disagrees. Dan Onorato received $74, 300 from the Marcellus Gas industry, while Tom Corbet took in $372,720, according to Marcellus Money.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge recently became a lobbyist for the Marcellus Gas industry as have three of Gov. Ed Rendell's staff people. Ridge's annual compensation is listed as $900,000, Rendell has collected $84,100 from the industry, according to Marcellus Money.

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