For Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, the benefits of the oil and gas boom in his state can be summed up by a bumper sticker he spied on a pickup truck—'American energy, American jobs.' Except, he thinks it should read 'Pennsylvania energy, Pennsylvania jobs.'

“I want to be clear about something, because there seems to be a question mark about it. More than 220,000 jobs have either been created or made more prosperous or more secure by the vast wealth that is being tapped by our own Marcellus and, now, Utica shale plays,” Corbett, a Republican, said.

Corbett spoke to attendees of Hart Energy's DUG East exhibition and conference in Pittsburgh, but he directed his remarks also at the oil and gas industry's opponents, those he called “economic change deniers.”

“The industry has, to a vast degree, been environmentally responsible,” he said, calling it one of the “inconvenient truths” opponents have had to face.

Corbett challenged drilling opponents and jobs skeptics to visit Pennsylvania for themselves and see the industry's help in creating jobs.

“Visit Williamsport, the home of the Little League World Series, and see the crowded restaurants, the full hotels, and the additional hotels being built, and the stores that sell everything from equipment used on a rig to hats and boots, and then ask the people in those stores if they're doing this kind of business without the drilling industry,” he said.

He pointed to the $400 million in impact fees assessed on unconventional wells in the Marcellus over the last two years as a result of statewide legislation called Act 13 and how the funds benefit local economies. “If those who question the positive impact you have had … on our communities just took the time to personally visit these areas, they would know what we have learned here in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is an energy industry,” he said.

Corbett indirectly attributed some of the jobs' creation to Act 13, which was enacted in early 2012.

“We knew that our energy producers would compete, not only with other states, but now with other nations. So we avoided a burdensome and job-killing system of taxation in favor of allowing the industry to flourish, to grow and to create the jobs and the related business expansion that generates real prosperity and real revenue for all peoples,” he said.

Corbett reminded the oil and gas audience that history is repeating itself in his state by recalling that the nation's first commercial oil well, the Drake, was drilled in Pennsylvania a little more than 150 years ago. With hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, he said, “Pennsylvania is once again a major energy producing state, with the world's most famous natural gas reserve resting beneath us.”

And this time around, he said, the industry has a duty to the environment.

“Under Act 13, we passed the most comprehensive and effective system of guidelines and regulations of any drilling state in the nation,” he said. “Our system protects the various and many, many streams and aquifers that we have, and when necessary, and very rarely has it been necessary, we have imposed fines and taken action to protect the environment. The drilling industry has complied very well with these regulations.”

—Veronica Bucio

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