Marcellus Shale - Gas Wells

October 28, 2010

Casey, drilling association chief headline forum

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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SCRANTON – Two of the biggest names in the debate over regulation of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region are headlining an educational public forum at Marywood University next week.

U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey, D-Scranton, and Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, will be among six panelists to present their views Aug. 19 on the regional, statewide and national impact of development of natural gas resources in the Northeast.

Casey and Klaber stand on opposite ends of a regulatory spectrum when it comes to federal oversight of hydraulic fracturing – the process of injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and a small amount of chemicals into the shale under high pressure to release the natural gas inside.

Casey has sponsored legislation to impose federal oversight of the process and force the identification of the chemicals used, while Klaber has staunchly defended the process as environmentally safe and asserts additional federal oversight would be cost-prohibitive, while requiring the release of proprietary information is unreasonable.

The forum, dubbed “Marcellus Shale Challenges and Opportunities,” will address the short- and long-term implications of natural gas development in the region.

Sister Anne Munley, president of Marywood, is committed to making environmental issues and sustainability a major focus of her presidency, and the Marcellus Shale forum is the first in a series at Marywood that will address an array of sustainability issues, said Juneann Greco, university director of communications.

Munley wants the forums to focus on education, so the venue will not include debate. However, there will be an opportunity for audience members to submit written questions that the moderator will put to the presenters near the end.

The forum will be broadcast live on WVMW-TV (Comcast Cable Channel 21), WVMW-FM (91.7), and streamed “live” online at www.marywood.edu/marcellus. Internet viewers will be able to submit questions electronically.

Greco said Casey will address the federal government’s role in energy resource development. Klaber will address economics, energy and the environment.

Other presenters and their topics are:

• Timothy Kelsey, agricultural economics professor and state program leader of economic and community development for Penn State University, who will speak on the economic impact of natural gas development on local communities and the region.

• John Quigley, secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, who will speak on mineral rights in state parks and forests.

• Jennifer Hoffman, manager of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s Monitoring and Assessment Program, who will speak on managing and protecting water resources; and

• Jeanne VanBriesen, director of the Center for Water Quality in Urban Environmental Systems at Carnegie Mellon University, who will speak on water quality and quality issues in unconventional shale gas development.

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