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History of early american settlers
History of early american settlers
History of early american settlers
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Throughout its history the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, renowned for its natural beauty and natural resources, lured its first settlers with that beauty and ease of access to those natural resources, whether those settlers were Native American tribes or colonists and frontiersmen. Since before the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the prospect of material wealth derived from those resources inspired many hard working, innovative, and industrious citizens. People such as Colonel Edwin L. Drake, who drilled the first commercially successful oil well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, pioneered the development of the oil and gas industry, and ushered in the United State’s first oil boom. Its vast reserves of oil, gas, and coal, underground, and timber on the surface, played a pivotal role in the development of the Commonwealth as one of the nation’s leading industrial areas. It was only natural that the value of the rights in property on the surface and below the surface was realized. Early in the 20th Century, the Commonwealth began its acquisition of multitudes of tracts of land for state forests, state parks and game lands, the ownership rights to the surface and subsurface property, in many cases, were separate.
According to the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, § 27, “Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” Therefore, in 2011, the Commonwealth took an inventory of state-owned lands that overlay the Marcellus and Utica Shale oil and natural gas formation. According to the 2011 report, An Inventory of State-owned Real Property and Subsur...
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...ce rights underlying state forests, state parks, and state game lands, where those rights are owned by a private party. The regulation of such private subsurface rights to protect public resources must be reasonable. That way such regulation is not so burdensome as to affect an unconstitutional “taking” of private property without just compensation. However, the owner of the subsurface rights is limited by a good faith “reasonable use” requirement as a limit to its access to the surface area for the development of subsurface rights.
As Pennsylvania experiences its second major oil and natural gas boom in a little over a hundred years, it is imperative that the Commonwealth strive to maintain a balance between the regulatory control of oil and gas operations of state owned land, and the private ownership of subsurface rights in oil and gas underlying those lands.
In the video “Fracking Hell: The Untold Story” by Link TV explains how natural gas has been a huge problem not only for the earth in general but for everyone and everything living in it. The video explains how North East of Pennsylvania is having difficulties to conserve a healthy environment and people. North East of Pennsylvania is the main sources to extract gas and send it throughout the United States for gasoline and so on. However, this action is wonderful for the cost of gas, but has a huge impact on the environment and the people living in Pennsylvania. A lot of people in this state are worried having health issues because everything is not usable is being thrown out to the rivers where they get their fresh water.
The documentary ‘Gasland” is a telling tale of the terrible consequences of natural gas mining in the US. The filmmaker, Josh Fox, travels around the country visiting different homes that are in very close proximity of natural gas drilling sites after receiving a $100,000 offer from a natural gas company to use his land as a drilling site . The film focuses on how the drilling sites not only leave ugly scars on the land, but also the horrendous health problems people get from drinking the contaminated groundwater.
Hundreds of chemicals are used during Marcellus Shale drilling; therefore, the process can cause contamination and pollution. According to Marc Levy and Mary Esch, because the Marcellus Shale drills go so far under the ground, the water there has a higher chance of being polluted. According to the article “Methane Gas and Its Removal from Wells in Pennsylvania” methane is a chemical that can contaminate drinking water because of drilling. Too much methane can be harmful to humans (Swistock and Rizzo). According to the article “Hydrofracking,” water sources also have an increased risk of being polluted when a drill is installed near them. Some of the contaminated wastewater that this process creates stays in ...
An important part of extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale is that it is not only necessary and desirable, but it is also practical for farmers to implement on their property. This is because drilling is now regulated by law. Therefore, it is ensured to improve and sustain Pennsylvania’s agriculture through legislation requirements. This is due in large part to the establishment of Pennsylvania Act Thirteen, which went into effect in February of 2012.
Pennsylvania, along with being rich in coal, is now receiving kudos for its participation in the production of natural gas. An article composed by Madelon...
In the late nineteenth century, the oil industry was open to everyone. Sensing the commercial potential of the expanding oil production in western Pennsylvania in the early 1860’s, he built his first oil refinery near Cleveland in 1863.(3) He created new oil related companies such as engineering and pipeline firms that seemed to be independent operators. Rockefeller and his close colleagues, Andrews and Flagler, secretly co...
Smith-Baranzini, Marlene, Richard J. Orsi, and James J. Rawls. A Golden State: Mining And Economic Development In Gold Rush California. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1999. eBook (EBSCOhost). Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Before one can see the devastating effects of fracking, one must first understand how fracking works. As previously stated, the main intent of hydro-fracking is to access and harvest natural gas that lies below the surface of the Earth. Having formed over 400 million years ago by the collision of tectonic plates (Marsa 3), the Marcellus Shale plays host to a gold mine of natural gas, which is currently at the center of the fracking debate in the Northeastern region of the United States. Unfortunately, access...
Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the crowned jewel of the nation’s 544 refuges is in danger of destruction (Lamar and Markey 12). ANWR has been in existence since 1960 and has slowly become one of the most controversial topics to hit Congress. ANWR is composed of 19 million acres on the northeast coast of Alaska. Although the government has been provided with this immense land they are fighting to gain more land. Why? ANWR is the second biggest oil field that is owned by the U.S. Now the government wants more land to construct oil reserves. The refuge is home to many endangered species such as migratory birds, polar bears, and wolves (Lynne and Roberts 1). Most of ANWR’s designated oil area is owned by indigenous Alaskan people (Klyza and Ford-Martin 1). Though these are some of the concerns when debating to stop any further drilling, the more prevalent matters to anti-drillers are; the caribou species, duration of changes (benefits), and why keep a bill that contradicts already existing federal acts.
Rao, Vikram. Shale Gas: The Promise and the Peril. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI, 2012. Print.
environmental damage mounting, the practice of fracking has only quietly expanded and profited. This concealed expansion into the nation’s backyard has only
Oklahoma's oil and natural gas industry is giving us unstoppable progress for energy solutions, but the other parts of the nation are still searching for theirs. While providing jobs for the thousands of people who live in Oklahoma, the oil and natural gas industry not only donates to America's petroleum production, but it also produces millions of dollars for our state’s economy, schools, and roads. Making new headways in our industry every day, artificial technology, scientific breakthroughs, adequate new exploration, and drilling methods took place. Without these upgrades, we would not be able to extract oil and natural gas from challenging fields more efficiently than we can now. As capability rises, environmental impact will continue to go down. In 1897, a tower of surging oil divided the Bartlesville sky. Oklahoma's preliminary drilling swaged badly, brought forth by the federal controls on wellhead prices of natural gas applied to interstate commerce in the 1950s. By 1982, oil prices hit an all time high of $37.60 per barrel. Furthermore, the number of progressive drilling rigs in Oklahoma also hit a record of 882. The total quantity produced from the soul and natural gas industry in Oklahoma reached about 40 billion dollars in 2007. Also, through the gross production tax, oil and natural gas producers and royalty owners gave more than 2 billion dollars to Oklahoma used for teacher retirement, public schools, wildlife management, bridges, roads, and state colleges. Petroleum remains an indispensable Sooner State industry. Natural gas continued to grow in the early 1990s despite of the entire staggering bust that was caused by the plummeting world crude oil p...
It has now become apparent what we have to do to help our environment and reduce our carbon dioxide output before our atmosphere becomes subject to even more damage. Non-renewable resources are no longer an option. We have been using them for hundreds of years and the results have been the same. Non-renewable resources are the most detrimental energy source for our environment. Alternative resources are the answer. They are safer for the environment and they are renewable.
To our respected teacher Ms . Roxanne Japzon, visitors, judges and classmates a pleasant and blessed morning to all of us. Today we are gathered here for this important task that will test our own self- confidence and personality. At this happy and very nervous occasion my topic talks about the preservation of our natural resources. What do you think would happen to us if our natural resources were already exhausted? Look what surrounds us, just turn your eyes slowly and try to feel the harmony of our environment. And now what have you noticed? “EVERYTHING TURNS INTO A BIG METAMORPHISM.”
1. What impact do natural resources have on economic growth? Will it be possible for a country with few natural resources to grow rapidly? Why or why not.