John Paul Rossi: Lessons of Gulf Oil Spill Apply to Marcellus Shale Drilling
[John Paul Rossi is an associate professor of history at Penn State Behrend. He writes on business and economic history and is co-author of "Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Automobile Insurance: Samuel P. Black, Jr. and the Rise of Erie Insurance, 1923-1961" (jpr2@psu.edu).]
BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent explosion of the Mariner Energy rig offers Pennsylvanians several important lessons that are directly applicable to the natural gas drilling boom in the state.
In both the Gulf and in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale, the industry has claimed that new technologies make drilling for hydrocarbons safe and clean. It is in fact a dirty and dangerous process. The Gulf Coast has learned this first hand as oil has washed up on the shores of five states and covered more than 80,000 square miles of the Gulf's water surface.
Although Pennsylvania will not suffer an oil spill, the hydraulic fracturing process (fracking) used to unlock natural gas in the Marcellus Shale can badly damage vast stretches of the state's lands and waters. This is being done, however, through the equivalent of 10,000 cuts rather than one big blowout as in the Gulf spill....
Read entire article at GoErie.com
BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent explosion of the Mariner Energy rig offers Pennsylvanians several important lessons that are directly applicable to the natural gas drilling boom in the state.
In both the Gulf and in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale, the industry has claimed that new technologies make drilling for hydrocarbons safe and clean. It is in fact a dirty and dangerous process. The Gulf Coast has learned this first hand as oil has washed up on the shores of five states and covered more than 80,000 square miles of the Gulf's water surface.
Although Pennsylvania will not suffer an oil spill, the hydraulic fracturing process (fracking) used to unlock natural gas in the Marcellus Shale can badly damage vast stretches of the state's lands and waters. This is being done, however, through the equivalent of 10,000 cuts rather than one big blowout as in the Gulf spill....