The Gold Standard | Drill, baby, drill

Marcellus Shale. Any idea what it is? A late Roman Emperor? Nope. The newest rap group out of Philadelphia? Incorrect, but a valiant effort.

How about a huge, multi-state expanse of natural gas reserves? Bingo. And it’s an area that, as temporary residents of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia, we should pay exceedingly closer attention to.

In the past decade, the Marcellus Shale has gradually become the face of the growing push for increased forays into natural gas drilling even as the voices in opposition to the drilling have grown louder.

However, these voices need to quiet down. Natural gas is an alternative energy resource that deserves to be embraced, not deplored.

The amount of natural gas embedded within the Marcellus Shale — which spans northern Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio — is truly stunning. One figure pegs the amount of natural gas reserves at 500 trillion cubic feet, enough to fuel the entire United States for two years (and we are no frugal consumer of energy). Oh, and the total value would be about one trillion dollars.

As residents of the Keystone state, students should be adamantly in favor of continued drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade group promoting the state’s natural gas industry, recently released data that highlights the benefits of tapping the Marcellus Shale.

Natural gas, which can be converted to be used in place of traditional gasoline, could sell for approximately $1.90 a gallon. I don’t think I have to emphasize how much these savings could benefit low-income households who spend inordinate amounts on diesel gas. For the environmentally conscious Penn student, know that natural gas produces fewer pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Republican Party in Harrisburg is strongly in favor of tapping natural gas reserves. They recently unveiled a bill package that would grant tax credits, grants and loans to small businesses and transit systems that pivoted to natural gas fuel.

But you know who else is in favor of natural gas? President Barack Obama.

During a speech last week, the president stated that “the potential for natural gas is enormous.”

“Recent innovations have given us the opportunity to tap into large reserves … in the shale under our feet,” he said, not-so-subtly alluding to the Marcellus Shale.

While Harrisburg and Washington seem to recognize the benefits of natural gas, our very own representatives on the Philadelphia City Council are loath to support the idea.

In early February, the City Council passed a resolution that sought to hold off on drilling in the Marcellus Shale until risk studies by the Environmental Protection Agency could be completed regarding the impact on the Delaware River Basin. That’s all well and good, until one realizes that this debate is pretty much moot.

“Natural gas has been developed in Pennsylvania for more than 100 years, and there have been more than 350,000 oil and gas wells drilled here, but Philadelphia has never previously considered a ban,” Pennsylvania State University Geoscience professor Michael Arthur said in a statement.

“People need to know that natural gas is a critical resource in a greener energy portfolio that reduces our carbon footprint and promotes energy independence,” he continued.

To be perfectly fair, the drilling process has to be refined and regulated more extensively. Just last month, a natural gas explosion killed five people in Lehigh County.

But the issue has to be viewed on a macro scale. The sheer economic and societal benefits that a solid flow of domestic fuel can supply to the nation are too great to tiptoe toward. And if you don’t want to take the Pennsylvania GOP’s word for it, take Obama’s word.

Or take President Ronald Reagan’s word after the Challenger disaster in 1986. “It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted.”

Brian Goldman is a College junior from Queens, N.Y. His email address is goldman@theDP.com. The Gold Standard appears every Monday.

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