PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS: …It’s been a little more than two years since a then-new Gov. Corbett famously pledged to make Pennsylvania “the Texas of the natural-gas boom” – but already it’s beginning to look as if the governor was all hat and no cattle, at least on this issue.
By some measures, unconventional drilling for natural gas, or “fracking,” in the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania has dropped by more than 50 percent since its peak in 2010, the year Corbett was elected. Experts say that’s because of several factors – but the biggest by far is a steep plunge in the price that natural gas was getting on the open market, in part a result of so much fracking here and elsewhere.
But regardless of the cause, the end of the fracking boom in Pennsylvania, or at least a pause, has enormous implications – economically, environmentally and politically. The latest numbers show that new jobs in energy production in the state are flat at best – which could be another headache for Corbett as he defends his record on employment in what looks like an uphill battle for re-election… (more)
This isn’t the industry Allison Schwartz wants to tax is it?
The article makes it sound as though “natural gas is over,” but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. New drilling may be down, but gas output is still growing by leaps and bounds. According to the Pa. DEP, drillers extracted 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas in the first six months of 2013, which is up 22.6 percent from the previous six months and up 57 percent year-on-year.