MUST READ: Who's Been Naughty and Who's Been Nice in the Utica Shale?

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Burton Speakman of the Youngstown Vindicator has an excellent article which reviews the past year of shale activity in Ohio.  Speakman breaks down many of the salient events of 2012 and categorizes the major players as naughty or nice.  It's a great way to get some perspective on all that has happened in the past year.

Here is a small piece of the article:
NICE
Firefighter training programs such as the one run by the Ohio Oil and Gas Education Association. With increased oil and gas exploration occurring, the chances of local firefighters being called to an oil and gas scene are increased. It’s important that firefighters understand what they see at a drilling site and know how to react.
NAUGHTY
Authors of papers about fracking who do not list if they receive income from the oil and gas industry. Despite the unfettered belief among most academics that being a consultant for the industry, and receiving big payments from it, will not influence research findings, the public still has the right to know. The same goes for research funded by environmental groups, by the way.
NICE
State legislators who are attempting to find ways to regulate a burgeoning industry. Two years ago there were probably few, if any, state legislators who knew the difference between fracking and an injection well. Now most have educated themselves about the process. The key going forward is balancing regulation that spurs economic growth while ensuring high safety standards.
NAUGHTY
Critics of fracking who repeat unproven claims, such as “Fracking causes cancer,” to scare others about the process. Opponents of fracking often state that rates of breast cancer have risen in the Barnett Shale and nowhere else in the area. But researchers haven’t seen a spike in breast-cancer rates in the area, said Simon Craddock Lee, a professor of medical anthropology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Read the rest of this excellent article by clicking here.

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