Marcellus Shale

The Marcellus Shale stretches from West Virginia to the Southern Tier of New York and is the largest unconventional gas field in the world.  The shale covers 63 million acres over six states with a potential for 500,000 well sites.

Currently, drilling occurs in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.  At this point, New York State does not allow drilling in the Marcellus Shale, however a Department of Environmental Conservation report recently submitted to Governor Cuomo may change that.

On July 1, 2011 the New York State DEC delivered to the Governor a report that stated the hydraulic fracturing process could be done safely if outside New York City's watershed area.  The report calls for rules that will 'allow drilling in a rigorously protective and environmentally responsible way.'  It would also ban surface drilling on all state-owned land including parks and forest areas and would require the DEC to issue strict regulations to regulate the process.

There will now be a 60 day comment period for interested and affected parties to reach out to the Governor before he makes a decision on whether to regulate and allow natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale area.

Drilling the New York portion of the Marcellus Shale could lead to a huge economic boost for the state, but without tight regulations could cause environmental concerns.  The Amherst Chamber of Commerce supports the drilling of the Marcellus Shale due to its positive economic impact on New York State.  The Chamber believes that environmental concerns can be minimized or averted through state approved regulatory control.  While this issue does not geographically affect the Chamber, the Marcellus Shale could provide thousands of jobs for our economically depressed state.