Farming is so poor up in that neck of the woods that a good portion of the farms were leased out to hunting camps. Middle class is a big step up. Most of Pennsylvania's Northern Tier from Potato City on East is a rural slum. I have my doubts that the discovery and production of Gas there will result in any great benefit to the local economies. It will end up like Western PA Counties like Venango did after the discovery of shallow well natural gas there years ago. No one is interested in buying land where mineral rights have been sold.
Of more concern is it's affect on Bird Life in the area. Look over these links I posted here a while back about it's potential effect on Scarlet Tanagers and various Warbler species like Blackburnians which breed here.
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=183339
There is also a link to an article from Audubon Magazine on the issue. The link to the newspaper article no longer works.
Bob
Farmers have to be fairly well off to have 1,000 acres to begin with, which is the minimum contract, though in suburban neighborhoods, it's different, if 90% of the neighborhood agrees to contracts, you can end up with a well 250 ft. from your house even if you don't want one.
But even so, going from farming part of 1,000 acres with corn or soybeans to receiving six figure royalty checks is a big step up. One banker I talked to said a farmer walked into his local branch and wanted to deposit a six figure check in his checking account! The teller said he could do better if he saw their wealth management rep. Some banks now have special wealth management divisions that deal exclusively with Marcellus land owners.
As far as the benefit to the local economies, it's a mixed bag. Pickup truck sales are up significantly in Lycoming County because of the gas workers and fleet sales to gas companies and support services companies.
OTOH, factories, restaurants, and supermarkets that use to employ young guys are hurting for workers because every able bodied young guy is working in the gas industry in the Northern Tier.
Also, housing prices have skyrocketed. Homes that were renting or $450-$550 per month, now cost $1,200-$1,500 per month. The gas workers can afford it, but it's tough on older guys with families who don't make a lot of money like they do.
In Verango County, it's a different story. Cranberry Township is becoming a hub for power companies. Westinghouse located their world HQ there, with 3,500 employees. Areva, which is a French power company, also located an office there and another company, can't remember the name.
So there it's not "hit and run," those jobs are steady and long term.
The effects on wildlife (not to mention human life) are quite controversial. Harrisburg wants to look the other way because all they want to see is jobs, jobs, jobs, which make them look good.
There were some environmental impact regs included in the Marcellus Shale bill, but they were chiefly to prevent water contamination. Plus the impact fee will help communities deal with environmental impacts, but it's not going to bring a species back.
There were two large E&P companies, Halliburton and BJ Services, that were using diesel fuel for fracking (not in PA, out West). The gov't regulators told them to stop using diesel fuel since it contains carcinogens, they said they would stop but continued for six more months until the wells were completed.
The gov't called the companies before Congress, the companies admitted to continuing to use diesel fuel, and they got fined. Something like $10,000 each. Big deal. They are making that per hour from the wells.
Until the gov't gets tough with these companies and shuts some wells down to prove they are serious rather than give them a slap on the wrist with a petty fine, some are going to continue to do what's expedient over what's best for the environment. There are good players in the industry and there are bad players, just like in any other industry. The task of the PA DEP should be to make it clear that bad players are not welcomed in the commonwealth.
Under former DEP Secretary John Hanger, whom I spoke with, I think that could have happened, but with the new sec. that Corbett picked, that doesn't seem likely. We'll see....
