Stories about mineral extraction never attract attention until there is some calamity; death or some sort of environmental hazard. Millions of tons of coal are mined in the US every year and outside the corporate world scarcely a line of print or minute of air time acknowledges this achievement. The reason for this is because it routine. As routine a milk deliveries of bygone days. Governor John Kasich has signed legislation that allows the drilling for gas on state owned lands, largely state parks. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer on June 30 2011;
House Bill 133 will allow oil and gas drilling in the state's parks. The oil and gas deposits drawing attention in Ohio are known as Utica Shale, a rock formation 3,000 to 7,000 feet below the better-known Marcellus Shale, itself several thousand feet below the surface.
If that sound revolutionary it's not. Pennsylvania has done the same and so has Michigan. Oklahoma City based Chesapeake Energy has already invested $1 billion dollars in Ohio although it has yet to drill a producing well. No one is popping champaign corks yet and it could be decades if ever before Ohio becomes a major gas producer but when savvy drillers such as Chesapeake are willing to bet money on Ohio it should get some attention. The Ohio Utica shale formation lies under the better know Marcellus shale formation as is thought to hold very pure gas that can go straight from the well to home users. In other news, General Motors reported sales of 125 Chevy Volts last month.
This is the second video I've posted on hydraulic fracking but readers may have missed it. This is an industry video (from Canadian company Questare) that shows how horizontal drilling and fracking works.
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