Nov 20, 2013 4 min read

These days, barely a week passes without a news story regarding energy development in the United States.

The latest — as of this writing in mid-November — is that the International Energy Agency is projecting that the energy production boom in shale gas in the U.S. has put our country on track to become independent of the global energy market by 2035.

The IEA’s announcement also underscores the fact that world events related to energy production and demand now have world-changing implications for our county, which began billing itself the Energy Capital of the East several years ago.

Less than a month before the IEA made its projection about U.S. energy independence, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced that natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale region is growing faster than expected.

The EIA report found that Marcellus production has reached 12 billion cubic feet per day — the energy equivalent of about 2 million barrels of oil a day, and more than six times the shale strata’s 2009 production rate.

Sandwiched between those two reports was a third-quarter earnings release from Range Resources that included new “gas in place,” or GIP, maps showing that more than half of Range’s Pennsylvania leasehold, or about 535,000 acres, sits atop a “stacked” area in Southwestern Pennsylvania of not one, but three shale formations – the Marcellus, Upper Devonian and Utica shales. They comprise the most hydrocarbon-rich portion of Pennsylvania with an estimated 250 billion cubic feet to 425 bcf per square mile, an astounding figure.

The other major headline this fall was the announcement from Consol Energy Inc. that it is selling five West Virginia coal mines and shifting more of its focus on natural gas production in the region. Like Range, Consol has significant acreage in the most productive shale region.

As part of its announcement, Consol noted that it is retaining coal assets in Washington and Greene counties, including its Bailey, Enlow Fork and soon-to-be-completed BMX mining complex, the output of which can be sold domestically or internationally.

That strategy makes sense when held up to another finding in Paris-based IEA’s 2013 World Energy Outlook. It notes that India will become the leading importer of coal within the next decade.

While the prospect of being at the epicenter of America’s rapid approach to energy independence should give us pause to be thankful for the economic benefits we stand to enjoy, it also is a reminder of the great responsibilities we have in ensuring that we do the best possible job with our prominent position in the energy world.

Those obligations include proceeding with the best environmental and safety practices while continuing to develop the educational and vocational resources that will guarantee that our residents have the best opportunity to obtain not just well-paying jobs, but careers in the industry.

And despite our hold over natural gas and coal reserves that promise to be abundant for decades, we, like the rest of the world’s energy consumers, need to make a commitment to be as energy efficient as possible.

Within the next month, Shell Oil is expected to announce whether it will build its proposed ethane cracker plant in Beaver County.

A green light for this project, which would take three years and billions of dollars to build, will redouble the demand for skilled workers and create the opportunity to eventually add to the already expanding manufacturing base here and throughout the region.

As Gov. Tom Corbett noted two years ago during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new industrial door plant in Starpointe, the proposed site for the Shell cracker near Monaca is only 10 air miles from the Burgettstown industrial park.

We have the extraordianry luck of being in the right place at the right time with the resources the world wants.

Let’s make the best of our good fortune.

Michael Bradwell is business editor for the Observer-Reporter.