Posts Tagged ‘philadelphia inquirer’

Extends Open Invitation for the President to Visit a Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Production Site

Canonsburg, PA – Tomorrow, President Obama is scheduled to visit “a Bucks County wind-turbine plant,” as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer. In a speech last week, the president said this about American natural gas production from shale formations, such as the Marcellus Shale – the world’s second largest natural gas field: “Recent innovations have given us the opportunity to tap large reserves – perhaps a century’s worth – in the shale under our feet. The potential here is enormous.”

Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a strategic advisor to the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), issued this statement in anticipation of the president’s upcoming energy-focused event in Pennsylvania:

“We are very pleased that President Obama will be in the Keystone State tomorrow to discuss one of the most pressing issues facing every family and small business owner across the nation: energy security. In a speech last week, the president underscored the ‘enormous’ potential of clean-burning American natural gas. We remain hopeful that the president will use this opportunity to reiterate the fact that the responsible development of America’s abundant, job-creating shale gas reserves must be central to our nation’s long-term energy security goals.”

Recognizing the fact the President Obama has visited a host of windmill and solar panelfacilities, Gov. Ridge extended an open invitation to the president to visit a Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale natural gas production site:

“American natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale is not only safely delivering affordable and reliable homegrown energy resources for the nation, but it’s also helping to create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs across the region at a time when they’re most needed. On behalf of the coalition, we welcome the president back to Pennsylvania, any time, to visit a Marcellus production site and see firsthand the incredible work being done each day in the Commonwealth that’s helping America realize our strategic energy, economic, national security and environmental objectives.”

MORE INFO

• This week’s Time Magazine cover, available HERE, features the Marcellus Shale: “This Rock Could Power The World”
• Pulitzer Prize winning energy expert Daniel Yergin in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal: “Stepping on the Gas”
• Fox News: Gov. Ridge Underscores Benefits of Clean-Burning, American Natural Gas
• MSC Press Release: New Study Outlines Pennsylvania’s Clean Transportation Roadmap
• MSC Issue Alert: By The Numbers: The Mighty Marcellus, A Powerful Job Creation Engine

Copyright: Marcellus Shale Coalition

Some PA Residents to See Nearly 11 Percent Drop in Gas Bill Immediately; Even More Domestic Supplies on the Way

• Philadelphians to save more than $22.6 million over next three months alone
• UGI customers to experience between 8.1 and 10.7 percent reduction in monthly bill
• Rates more than 13 percent lower than a year ago

PGW announces cuts in gas rates
Philadelphia Inquirer
Andrew Maykuth
November 29, 2010

Just in time for the winter heating season, Philadelphia Gas Works announced Monday it will decrease natural gas rates for the next three months, saving the average residential heating customer about $14.69 per month.

The municipal gas utility will lower its residential gas-supply charge from $1.60 per hundred cubic feet to $1.50 on Wednesday. The charge for commercial and institutional customers will also be reduced.

The supply charge is adjusted quarterly to reflect changes in the wholesale market price of natural gas, which is depressed because of the recession and abundant supplies from new resources such as shale-gas.

Based upon current market projections, the company anticipates that its rates should remain stable through the spring.

UGI cuts natural gas rate by 8.1 percent
Reading Eagle
Dan Kelly
November 30, 2010

Citing falling market prices and a growing supply, UGI Gas Utilities said Tuesday that it will decrease the rate it charges for natural gas by 8.1 percent beginning today.

UGI provides natural gas to 82,000 customers in the greater Reading area.

In addition, the utility owns UGI Central Penn Gas, which has several hundred customers in Hamburg and Shoemakersville, and in Centre, Perry, Tilden and Windsor townships. The rate for those customers will drop by 10.7 percent beginning today.

The average monthly bill for a UGI customer will drop to $103.60 from $112.76, officials said.

Central Penn monthly bills will drop to $83.01 from $92.92, they said.

Since 2008, UGI customers’ rates have fallen 30 percent and Central Penn customers’ bills have dropped 35 percent, company spokesman Joseph Swope said.

“We’re only starting to see the impact of the Marcellus shale gas supply,” Swope said. …”For the first time in a long time we have this huge supply of gas sitting here locally and better yet, it’s hurricane proof.”

By 2018, Swope said, the Marcellus shale will be producing 4.6 billion cubic feet per day, or 40 percent of all natural gas currently used in the Northeast.

U.S. proved natural gas, crude oil reserves soar – EIA
Reuters
Selam Gebrekidan and Joshua Schneyer
Nov 30, 2010

U.S. natural gas reserves increased by the most in history last year, and crude reserves also rose, as companies drilled frantically into shale rock formations with new technology, the Energy Information Administration said in an annual report on Tuesday.

U.S. net proved natural gas reserves rose 11 percent, or 28.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf), in 2009 to total 284 tcf, underscoring the dramatic impact that new gas pumped from shale rock formations is having on world energy supply.

“These increases demonstrate the possibility of an expanding role for domestic natural gas and crude oil in meeting both current and projected U.S. energy demands,” EIA researchers said in their report.

Proved reserves — which now stand at the equivalent of 12 years of gas consumption and 3.3 years of oil demand — represent energy supplies that are extensively charted out and could be tapped under current market conditions. Total recoverable reserves, however, can be far higher.

Originally Posted at: MarcellusCoalition.org

Philadelphia Inquirer
Sat, Nov. 20, 2010

The editorial “Buying good publicity” (Saturday) states that, “The greatest safety concerns from Marcellus Shale drilling stem from the impact on drinking water by the use of a water-and-chemical mix to break through to gas formations thousands of feet underground.” However, your readers should understand that fracturing fluids are 99.5 percent water and sand, with a fraction of additives used to reduce friction in the well bore and to kill bacteria (all components are listed on the state Department of Environmental Protection’s website). These fluids have never impacted groundwater, a fact that has been confirmed by DEP Secretary John Hanger.

The shale-gas industry – which, according to experts at Penn State, will have helped create 88,000 jobs in the commonwealth by year’s end – is committed to responsibly ensuring that we maximize the economic, energy security, and environmental benefits of the Marcellus Shale for all Pennsylvanians. We are devoted to getting this opportunity right. Our industry is taking commonsense steps to ensure that groundwater is protected and that responsible Marcellus development will continue to help put tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians to work. At the same time, our industry’s work is generating much-needed revenues for our cash-strapped state government, as well as for local municipalities, while also directing our nation on a path toward a more secure, cleaner energy future.

Kathryn Z. Klaber
President & Executive Director
Marcellus Shale Coalition
Canonsburg

Read this editorial on the Philadelphia Inquirer website:http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20101120_Letters__Maximizing_the_benefits_of_natural_gas

Do you have concerns about a loved one confined to a nursing home who suffers from bed sores which have gone untreated?

Your loved one may be entitled to compensation if it is determined that his or her bed sores were preventable or, even if preventable, had gone untreated.

In a story reported by Christopher K. Hepp of the Philadelphia Inquirer for www.philly.com, details of a jury verdict in a case in which a man who suffered from bed sores and ultimately died from their complications were explained.

In a highly unusual step for such a case, a Philadelphia jury yesterday leveled $5 million in punitive damages against Jeanes Hospital and a Wyncote nursing home in the death of a man who developed ultimately fatal bedsores while at both facilities.

The damages – $1.5 million against Jeanes and $3.5 million against Hillcrest Convalescent Home- came two weeks after the same Common Pleas Court jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages in the case. The damages were awarded to the widow of Joe N. Biango, who died of bedsores in 2008, two years after being discharged from Jeanes Hospital in the city’s Fox Chase section.

Steven R. Maher, who represented Biango’s widow, said that in his 25 years of handling such cases, this was only the second time a jury had awarded punitive damages.

Biango went to Jeanes on May 21, 2006, after suffering weakness and confusion. He was 74 at the time and was thought to have suffered a stroke.

Doctors at Jeanes failed to properly diagnose that Biango was suffering from a urinary-tract infection that, as a result, worsened and left him susceptible to the bedsores that ultimately killed him.

After about a week at Jeanes, Biango was transferred to Hillcrest, where he stayed two weeks until his condition worsened and he was returned to Jeanes. He was released to go home after three days.

It was alleged that workers at Jeanes and Hillcrest allowed the bedsores to fester and Biango to go malnourished to the point that he lost 28 pounds.

After he returned home, Biango was cared for by his wife, Shirley, before dying from the bedsores two years later.

If you believe a loved one has been neglected or abused in a nursing home or assisted living facility, contact either Patrick E. Dougherty (570-288-1427, [email protected]) or Sean P. McDonough (570-347-1011, [email protected]) or any of the lawyers at DLP.