AP: We are in like Flint!. Er, shale

Yippie!!!

From The Marcellus Shale Coalition…

Benefits of Natural Gas Production Realized by “Every Single Pennsylvanian”

Canonsburg, PA – While a clear majority of Americans – facing stubbornly high national unemployment and underemployment rates – still believe that the U.S. economy is getting worse, according to new Rasmussen Reports research, positive, private sector-driven economic growth continues to buck trends across Appalachia.

One key factor? According to a new Associated Press analysis, Pennsylvania mineral owners and family famers received more than $400 million in Marcellus Shale royalty payments in 2011 alone, while the natural gas industry invested several billion dollars in the commonwealth during that time. As Fadel Gheit, a senior oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., tells the AP, “We are producing record levels of natural gas.”

It’s lengthy, but give it a read.

As for my somehow benefiting, I’m the guy spinning cobalt and diamond-tipped drill bits for a living. And according to my continuing education in Excavation Safety 101...when methane exceeds 5% of any atmosphere in a confined space bereft of proper ventilation, a single spark from a drill bit could lead to one nasty explosion.

And what do we seem to be getting in spades since the fracking came to town? Uh, try methane showing up in the weirdest of places.

Yikes!

Later