Nov 1, 2019 3 min read

Last week, President Trump came to Pittsburgh to provide the keynote address at the ninth annual Shale Insights conference. His attendance is a testament to the critical role that natural gas plays in the U.S. economy, in solidifying our country’s energy security, and in providing hundreds of thousands of good-paying, blue-collar jobs across the state and across the country.

Unfortunately, he also highlighted a fact that many of us know all too well: that the shale industry is under attack. Both inside and outside our state, there are individuals and groups calling for a moratorium on fracking. This is a move that would be disastrous for thousands of families like mine in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. It would threaten our country’s economic and energy stability and would represent a step backwards in our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Natural gas development plays a crucial role in providing jobs across the commonwealth. These jobs aren’t just for the men and women employed by energy companies like Range Resources. They’re the iron and steel workers, welders, pipefitters and others who work hard every day to ensure that families across Pennsylvania have reliable energy to power their homes and businesses. Good paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.

Natural gas is the cleanest burning hydrocarbon, producing half the carbon dioxide and a fraction of the air pollutants of coal. Operators in the Marcellus and elsewhere have helped reduce our country’s use of coal by almost 40% since 2008, bringing America’s CO2 levels to their lowest in 20 years.

Due to American innovation, we can safely develop natural gas resources while minimizing our impact on the environment. At Range Resources, we have developed a number of operational innovations to drive safer business practices across the industry. We are constantly innovating in order to set new standards for efficiency and sustainability. This has included a water recycling initiative and water sharing program, in which Range is reusing 153% of its own and other operators’ water. We use state of the art leak detection and repair programs to minimize our impact on the surrounding environment, and drilling longer wells which means less surface locations. Range has also been at the forefront of the industry in emission reductions by using cutting-edge technologies and customized engineering solutions that enable us to effectively manage emissions while improving overall production. 

As the national conversation around energy continues, it’s important to remind Americans about the positives that shale development has brought to communities across the country: jobs, investment, energy security and clean, cheap, domestic energy. Responsibly developing shale natural gas will be critical in ensuring these positive trends continue.

Laural Ziemba

Range Resources