Extracting domestic natural
gas has become a “game changer” since President Barack Obama took office in
2009, and in Pennsylvania it’s been neither a Democratic nor Republican issue.
The state Department of Environmental Protection says it issued 1,742 permits for Marcellus Shale wells in 2009 under then-Democratic Gov.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing, Ed Rendell and — as hydraulic fracturing,One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles. or fracking,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. took off — 3,512 in 2011, the first year of his Republican successor, Gov. Tom Corbett.
In breaking down the energy policies of Obama’s re-election campaign and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, fracking and natural gas are symbolic of the candidates’ views on the range of energy sources:
They’re both for domestic energy. The differences arise in how to meet their goals, with Obama favoring more careful regulation and Romney interested in letting industry lead, analysts say.
Fracking involves injecting copious amounts of sand- and chemical-laden water into the earth to free natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and other geologic formations. It has become a divisive issue over fears about its effects on the environment, but its rewards are showing.
“Our average residential customer is paying 40 percent less in their natural gas bill than they did four years ago,” said Reading, Pa.-based UGI Utilities Inc. spokesman Joseph J. Swope.
UGI over the summer announced completion of its second interconnection station providing locally produced gas to its customers in north central counties such as Potter and Tioga.
Last week, the Pennsylvania DEP issued a permit for the state’s first power plant to be supplied at least partly with locally produced natural gas. Moxie Liberty LLC of Vienna, Va., plans to build the plant in Bradford County. East Brunswick, N.J.-based LS Power also announced plans for a similar plant using Marcellus Shale gas in western Pennsylvania’s Lawrence County.
“Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, just really has been a game changer over the last couple of years, both in terms of prices for natural gas and electricity and also in jobs, employment, particularly in Pennsylvania,” said Frank A. Felder, director of the Rutgers University Center for Energy, Economic & Environmental Policy.
Obama’s campaign touts an increase in domestic natural gas production in each year of his presidency. His campaign website says he supports “responsibly tapping our near 100-year supply of natural gas, which could support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?”
Romney calls fracking “of critical importance” and says the environmental impact of extracting natural gas — the cleanest-burning fossil fuel — “should not be considered in the abstract, but rather evaluated in comparison to the impact of utilizing the fuels that natural gas displaces, including coal.”
Bringing the gas to the Lehigh Valley and other parts of the Northeast requires more pipelines, including the Williams Companies’ Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. Northeast Supply Link expansion that would add a natural gas pipeline through nearly seven miles of Hunterdon County. That project is awaiting New Jersey and federal permitting.
Pipelines themselves have become a campaign issue.
Obama earlier this year objected to the proposed 1,179-mile route of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada over environmental concerns, suggesting that the pipeline should go around a sensitive aquifer in Nebraska.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing, Obama encouraged the company to pursue a shorter project from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast.
Romney promotes a “rational and streamlined approach to regulation.” On Keystone, his campaign says the delay has Canada considering a pipeline to its Pacific Coast, from where it would ship its oil to China.
“The president has cited a lot of statistical evidence that we’ve become less dependent on foreign oil since he’s become president, that domestic production of lots of different fossil fuels is up,” said Christopher P. Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
“Gov. Romney’s case is that all these indicators have happened in spite of the president’s policy rather than because of the president’s policy,” Borick continued, “that his policies have been a hindrance to the extraction of fossil fuels in particular and that his policies on, as he likes to say, picking winners and losers in the area of alternative fuels has been a failure.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection says it issued 1,742 permits for Marcellus Shale wells in 2009 under then-Democratic Gov.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing, Ed Rendell and — as hydraulic fracturing,One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles. or fracking,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. took off — 3,512 in 2011, the first year of his Republican successor, Gov. Tom Corbett.
In breaking down the energy policies of Obama’s re-election campaign and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, fracking and natural gas are symbolic of the candidates’ views on the range of energy sources:
They’re both for domestic energy. The differences arise in how to meet their goals, with Obama favoring more careful regulation and Romney interested in letting industry lead, analysts say.
Fracking involves injecting copious amounts of sand- and chemical-laden water into the earth to free natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and other geologic formations. It has become a divisive issue over fears about its effects on the environment, but its rewards are showing.
“Our average residential customer is paying 40 percent less in their natural gas bill than they did four years ago,” said Reading, Pa.-based UGI Utilities Inc. spokesman Joseph J. Swope.
UGI over the summer announced completion of its second interconnection station providing locally produced gas to its customers in north central counties such as Potter and Tioga.
Last week, the Pennsylvania DEP issued a permit for the state’s first power plant to be supplied at least partly with locally produced natural gas. Moxie Liberty LLC of Vienna, Va., plans to build the plant in Bradford County. East Brunswick, N.J.-based LS Power also announced plans for a similar plant using Marcellus Shale gas in western Pennsylvania’s Lawrence County.
“Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, just really has been a game changer over the last couple of years, both in terms of prices for natural gas and electricity and also in jobs, employment, particularly in Pennsylvania,” said Frank A. Felder, director of the Rutgers University Center for Energy, Economic & Environmental Policy.
Obama’s campaign touts an increase in domestic natural gas production in each year of his presidency. His campaign website says he supports “responsibly tapping our near 100-year supply of natural gas, which could support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?”
Romney calls fracking “of critical importance” and says the environmental impact of extracting natural gas — the cleanest-burning fossil fuel — “should not be considered in the abstract, but rather evaluated in comparison to the impact of utilizing the fuels that natural gas displaces, including coal.”
Bringing the gas to the Lehigh Valley and other parts of the Northeast requires more pipelines, including the Williams Companies’ Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. Northeast Supply Link expansion that would add a natural gas pipeline through nearly seven miles of Hunterdon County. That project is awaiting New Jersey and federal permitting.
Pipelines themselves have become a campaign issue.
Obama earlier this year objected to the proposed 1,179-mile route of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada over environmental concerns, suggesting that the pipeline should go around a sensitive aquifer in Nebraska.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing, Obama encouraged the company to pursue a shorter project from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast.
Romney promotes a “rational and streamlined approach to regulation.” On Keystone, his campaign says the delay has Canada considering a pipeline to its Pacific Coast, from where it would ship its oil to China.
“The president has cited a lot of statistical evidence that we’ve become less dependent on foreign oil since he’s become president, that domestic production of lots of different fossil fuels is up,” said Christopher P. Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
“Gov. Romney’s case is that all these indicators have happened in spite of the president’s policy rather than because of the president’s policy,” Borick continued, “that his policies have been a hindrance to the extraction of fossil fuels in particular and that his policies on, as he likes to say, picking winners and losers in the area of alternative fuels has been a failure.”
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