Research on Marcellus Drilling Hampered by Lack of Data, Lack of Funding, and Concerns of Bias

Penn­syl­va­nia Gov­ernor Tom Corbett has said he wants to make deci­sions about drilling for nat­ural gas in the Mar­cel­lus Shale based on good sci­ence. But the effort to research the impact of shale drilling has been ham­pered by lack of fund­ing, lack of data and claims of bias.

Dur­ing the next sev­eral months, law­mak­ers in Har­ris­burg will be draft­ing leg­is­la­tion based on Gov­er­nor Corbett's pro­pos­als for new gas drilling rules.

"We need to pro­tect the water," Cor­bett told a group of Town­ship Super­vi­sors in April. "We need to pro­tect the envi­ron­ment. But we must do it based on sci­ence and not emotion."

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