It's worth taking a look at just where the production of natural gas is at the moment in the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus, of course, is the strata of shale rock that underlies much of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York. Drilling in the area has hit moved into big time production only in the last five years. Even now, New York does not allow drilling at all. The other three states, however, have promoted the natural gas industry and have gotten dividends in the form of hundreds of thousands of new jobs and large tax revenues as a result. Here is a quote from Forbes:
The Marcellus Shale region is producing the equivalent of 2 million barrels of oil a day, which exceeds the oil production of in many OPEC countries. The energy agency, meanwhile, says that 2,203 trillion cubic feet of shale gas here is technically recoverable — enough to last 92 years.
Perhaps the most important thing to note about the production from the Marcellus is that none of the energy being produced is coming from federal lands. As we all know, president Obama has taken steps which have reduced production from those federal lands by almost 20% since taking office.
Another way to put the Marcellus production into proper perspective is this: if America were importing 2 million barrels of oil per day instead of relying on Marcellus production, we would be sending about 75 billion dollars per year to place like Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. It would lower our GDP by half a percent, a figure that is quite large for an economy that is only growing at something like 1.5% per year. Huge numbers of jobs would evaporate.
All I can say is this: thank God that the Marcellus is not on federal land.
The Marcellus Shale region is producing the equivalent of 2 million barrels of oil a day, which exceeds the oil production of in many OPEC countries. The energy agency, meanwhile, says that 2,203 trillion cubic feet of shale gas here is technically recoverable — enough to last 92 years.
Perhaps the most important thing to note about the production from the Marcellus is that none of the energy being produced is coming from federal lands. As we all know, president Obama has taken steps which have reduced production from those federal lands by almost 20% since taking office.
Another way to put the Marcellus production into proper perspective is this: if America were importing 2 million barrels of oil per day instead of relying on Marcellus production, we would be sending about 75 billion dollars per year to place like Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. It would lower our GDP by half a percent, a figure that is quite large for an economy that is only growing at something like 1.5% per year. Huge numbers of jobs would evaporate.
All I can say is this: thank God that the Marcellus is not on federal land.
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