Welcome!

This website is published by Robert E. Davis to objectively present the pro's and con's of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation underlying much oi New York's Finger Lakes Region.

He was a Market Research Manager for Procter & Gamble, a Vice  President of Market Facts, Inc., and President of Product Development Systems, Inc.  before retiring several years ago. Articles by him have appeared in research journals in  the United States, Canada, and Europe.

According to the U nited States Geological Survey, the Marcellus Shale is a sedimentary rock formation deposited over 350 million years ago in a shallow inland sea located in the eastern United States where the present-day Appalachian Mountains now stand. It extends from southern New York across Pennsylvania, and into western Maryland, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio.

This shale formation contains large quantities of natural gas. New developments in drilling technology ("high-volume hydrofracking") along with higher wellhead prices, have made the Marcellus Shale an important natural gas source. Drilling activity in the shale formation has been called a "boom". There are risks in tapping into this important natural resource. The natural gas industry believes that the risks are manageable. Opponents to drilling in New York and elsewhere say that accidents are unavoidable. 

Large energy corporations perform amazingly well in terms of providing what we want and need - from the natural gas that heats our homes, to the gasoline that that fuels our cars, to just about  everything. 

 Malcontents never tire of deriding large energy corporations as parasites that feed on the honest toil of workers, stifle their creativity, and pollute the environment. They fail to recognize the amazing innovative achievements and efficiencies of large energy corporations.