National-World

Over 15,000 volunteers laid nearly 90,000 wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, December 10, 2011.  Wreaths were also laid at the Pentagon, Vietnam and Korean Memorials and other national cemeteries. 

For some area landowners the wait is over. The marcellus shale train has arrived and is being fueled by the natural gas rush in western Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, November 16th, representatives from Shell Oil Company, (the world's largest producer and distributor of liquefied natural gas,) addressed an audience of about 150 landowners at the Clintonville VFD Social Hall. What’s all the hype? Natural gas!

Say what you mean and mean what you say. If the people setting our national energy policies lived by that simple rule, our economy would be in much better shape and the cost of oil—topping $106 per barrel this week--would be a heck of a lot cheaper.

By Drew Orient
Orion Consulting Services
The Progress News on Monday January 10th  returned to the Stone Energy Inc. well site Ashbaugh #1 on Bus Mong Road for an on site update. The photo taken on New Year’s Day by The Progress News shows a wind blown yellow orange flame flaring off the gas as flow back water was recovered. But by this Monday the high level of activity visible for the last several months has come to an end.

By Drew Orient, Orion Consulting
The opening headline of this series of articles asked If These Two Environments could Co exist....rural farmland, with small communities and maintaining environmental quality with the development of Marcellus Shale gas. If you ask Ms. Caudette Bedard of Cooperstown in her letter to the editor, (See letter to the editor - "Concerning the Marcellus Shale") as well as groups of residents in Plum Boro, Murrysville. Jefferson Boro, Hickory communities around Pittsburgh were drilling activity is currently concentrated, they are expressing concerns and skepticism of gas companies claims that the drilling is safe. In the small town of Dimock in Susequehana County in Northeastern PA near the New York border a number of residents await settlement with Cabot Gas and Oil Corporation.

By Drew Orient
Right from the beginning I need to say I am not a geologist or engineer. I admit I have been totally fascinated by being on the Asbaugh # 1 Marcellus well site just outside Knox off and on this past week observing the fracturing of the first horizontal leg.

Progress News Reporter Embedded During Process
By Drew Orient
Knox PA – It is late Friday afternoon, December 17, 2010, and The Progress News has been on the site of the Stone Energy Inc. Marcellus Well site Ashbaugh #1.

By Drew Orient, Orion Consulting

With the increasing development of Marcellus Shale Gas in the Progress News area and  as the picture in Washington County near Hickory Pennsylvania illustrates a larger question emerges,  Can Marcellus well development and rural farm and community life coexist?

This week The Progress News returned to the Stone Energy Inc. Marcellus Ashbaugh well site #1, just northeast of Knox at the intersection of Bus Mong and Grove Roads. A mile before reaching the site one could see the newly arrived Marcellus drill rig tower visible over the tops of the trees. (View video at end of story)

By Dr. Joseph Piroch
A recent spate of newspaper articles concerning Marcellus gas drilling together with public comments by persons employed in the Marcellus industry and others with a financial interest in the matter have universally failed to address the environmental implications of such drilling, implications with potentially devastating consequences for the areas and communities involved.