Marcellus Meandering

  

I spent most of yesterday in NE PA getting some new pics and taking care of some personal business.
  

I stopped by the Wyoming Monument to check the progress on its restoration, and it appears things are moving along nicely. However, to this admittedly untrained eye, with less than three months to go, it looks like it'll be a race to the finish to have the work completed in time for the annual Battle of Wyoming Commemorative ceremony in early July.

Kinda looks like a gas rig...ehh?

As I was taking pics around the Monument, I noticed the tire dump at the bottom of the hill to the southwest. Makes you wonder if all of this is worth it.

 

Clean-up, anyone?

Anyway...the last few days have been loaded with some interesting news and quotes. First up, read this article in the Daily Review...from start to finish. The CEO of Chesapeake Energy and an attorney for Range Resources have made some statements that people need to recognize as being very significant.

Here are but a few:

From Aubrey McClendon

Aubrey McClendon, CEO of the Oklahoma City, Okla.-based company, said the drilling issue with Northeast Pennsylvania's "very unusual surface geology" has been solved and should hopefully mean there are no future incidents of water contamination,

There has been no "lasting environmental damage" from hydraulic fracturing drilling,

"fracking is not the story."

McClendon went on to say "there is no such thing as clean coal"

And from Sr. VP of Range Resources David P. Poole:

"it is physically impossible for you to frack a Marcellus well ... and have any impact on groundwater."

Asked what the cause of groundwater contamination is if it is not fracking, he acknowledged that's something the industry has to address.

"Unless we can prove we are innocent, we are not,"

Disclaimer: Mr Poole is an attorney. He's clueless about geology and groundwater issues. He says what he's been told paid to say.

And I'll end with my favorite from another article that was attributed to John Arway, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission:

Mr. Arway said he believes gas can be extracted from Marcellus Shale without polluting water resources. "Most operators," he said, "want to do this well and safely."

"...without polluting water resources?" Oh, really?  

Sorry, Johnny, but that is not possible.

Finally, I've decided to stop regurgitating old news as the primary reason for posting. We have way too many folks doing the same thing, and I'm more than willing to defer to others to spend time recycling someone else's work. I'm about to resume my exploration of paths less travelled.

See you soon. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.