With 30,000 wells coming, Marcellus Shale generates economic activity and ecological worry

The natural-gas industry plans to drill 30,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale formation (map) in the next 10 years, creating economic activity amid environmental concern, and some of the gas may be used to generate power that would have been generated by burning coal, Joel Kirkland of Environment & Energy News reports. "A natural gas-burning electricity generator produces half the carbon dioxide emissions of a plant that burns coal," he notes.

In the second story in a "Gas Rush" series, Kirkland also notes that "Deep-seated public anxiety has set in about the environmental impact of horizontal gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking.' Regulators responsible for protecting the clean water supplies of New York City and Philadelphia have called a drilling timeout in the Delaware River watershed. But rivers of corporate cash continue to flow into the Marcellus and other shale fields. The magnitude of investment this year alone suggests energy companies have no plans to retreat from an ocean of recoverable gas."

The boom is good economic news for many. "The low cost of producing Marcellus gas, its pipeline-ready quality and its proximity to consumers in the Northeast have driven investment" by many multinational firms, Kirkland writes, and "The gas rush in southwestern Pennsylvania has claimed a significant slice of Pittsburgh's economy. One in five business expansions is tied to the nearby shale deposits, according to the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance." (Read more, subscription requried)