State's forests could pay high price for drilling of Marcellus Shale gas reserves, official warns

If citizens don’t take an active interest in the impacts of natural gas drilling, Pennsylvania forests could pay the price, said John Quigley, the Secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “We will see a degradation of Penn’s Woods the likes of which is unprecedented in the history of the state,” Quigley said. Quigley spoke to a crowd of about 75 people at a Bucknell University symposium on the Marcellus Shale over the weekend. A wave of natural gas drilling is about to wash over the state that “no agency of state government is prepared for,” Quigley said. “We have not seen the tip of the iceberg,” he said. ...MORE