• Blowouts in Clearfield County and Leroy Township 

• Methane and fluid-based geyser in Union Township, Tioga County 

• Dead sheep that drank from their farmer's well while the geyser was flowing 

• 75 - 100 holes in the "freshwater" impoundment liner that leaked flowback into the ground near municipal water supply wells in Duncan Township, Tioga 

• A bouncing creek bed in Leroy 

• Bubbling methane in two creeks in Sullivan County 

• Big problems on Paradise Road, Sugar Run, Alba and the numerous troubles of Bradford homeowners 

• Methane that bubbled for months in Little Muncy Creek 

• Dangerous methane levels in dozens of drinking water wells in eastern Lycoming County 

• Foaming 2BE and the leaked contents of a entire tanker load of partially treated flowback into Pine Creek 

• Truckers caught deliberately dumping flowback in fields near Muncy and Roaring Branch  

SOTU 2013: POTUS Misses Boatus

In Tuesday night's State of the Union address, President Obama revealed his understanding of the realities of NG development on America's landmass, our long term future, and the planet's atmosphere don't differ much from those of Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett and other gasophiles. His main difference is in more enthusiasm for government involvement in our energy future:  

Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race. And today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy. 

The President praised the rise in NG production and the American CO2 emission reduction that has come with it, but fails to mention an additional impetus behind that reduction was a wounded economy. He also choose to ignore methane emissions as a much more potent greenhouse gas (over a shorter period) than CO2: 

We produce more natural gas than ever before...And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen. 

The President at least acknowledged the threat of climate change:

But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change... we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science - and act before it's too late. 

But while he evidenced that inkling of understanding, he does not yet fully grasp what a tremendous force for economic growth a renewable energy revolution will be:

Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We've begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let's generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year - so let's drive costs down even further. 

It's a start, but the President falls into the trap set by the NG public relations machine by choosing to enable the untrustworthy oil and gas industry to put the cart before the donkey by gobbling up more predominant subsurface rights to (over) produce their product:

...the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence...(much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together).... That's why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.

So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues (from public land leases) to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. 

He proposed a glacially paced stab at vital conservation efforts:

...let's cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.

But like most climate focused NGO's, both the President and his fellow NG travelers continues to miss the fact that worn out methods of large scale federal tax credits reduce government revenues at a time when the treasury can ill afford it. And chances are good that the Prez and both sides of the aisle continue to fail to see that carefully devised and distributed energy consumer dividends, derived from the production of fossil fuels, and mandated to be used for conservation and decentralized renewable energy hardware and technologies at the building level, chosen by consumers, not government, supplemented with private sector backed R and D aided by well funded government labs, is the 21st Century path to jump starting a tsunami of market driven job creating solutions that will dwarf the number of jobs taken away by the resulting lessening of fossil fuel production. 

Ralph Kisberg for RDA