Penn State gas drilling study questioned over industry tie; school, researcher defend work

PSU drilling study questioned over industry tie

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A Penn State study that paints a rosy forecast on the economic potential of natural gas drilling has been greeted with skepticism from a citizens’ group and a think tank that favors a severance tax largely because the research was funded by an industry group.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition will pay more than $50,000 for the study released last month co-authored in part by researchers at Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the university said.

The industry group, in a release on its website, has boasted that among key findings are that “safe and steady development of clean-burning natural gas” in Pennsylvania had the potential to create 212,000 new jobs over the next decade, along with thousands already created.

The study also said gas drilling-related activities could create more than $1.8 billion in state and local tax revenues over the next 18 months. Skeptics are wary of results, especially at a time when lawmakers are weighing the merits of installing a severance tax on natural gas extracted from the rich reserve that lies deep underneath most of Pennsylvania.

The study was an update of a report last summer from the same researchers, and the Marcellus Shale Coalition paid more than $43,000 for that work.

The cover page of the study includes the Penn State name and logo. The second page notes the industry group paid for the study, and includes a disclaimer that opinions and conclusions “are those of the authors and not necessarily those of” the university or the coalition.

“What they are doing is distorting the discussion in Pennsylvania,” Jon Bogle, a member of the Responsible Drilling Alliance, said in a phone interview, “because they’ve been able to use Penn State as an authority in what they say.”

A separate study by the school in 2008 set off the current wave of public interest in the potential of natural gas drilling and burnished the school’s reputation as a go-to source for industry, lawmakers and citizens.

Bogle, in a letter for his Williamsport-based citizens group, asked university president Graham Spanier to “publicly disavow” the recent research because of what he called “greatly exaggerated” results.

The group’s letter also makes reference to questions about the research from the liberal-learning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, which favors a natural gas severance tax to help fund drilling-related environmental and local costs, as well as education and health care.

Michael Wood, research director for the Harrisburg-based center, said the issue is not so much with funding behind the study, as much as methods used by researchers.

As an example, the center has noted that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated there were more than 10,000 people directly employed by the industry in Pennsylvania.

A report last year from the Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center, at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport — which is also affiliated with Penn State — estimated the number of full-time natural gas-related jobs in north-central Pennsylvania could more than double to between 3,200 and 5,400 positions by 2013, depending on the success of wells.

A study earlier this year from the state’s Center for Workforce Information & Analysis estimated gas drilling jobs could grow 55 percent from 2006 to 2016 to more than 12,400 positions statewide.

“This is great. … These are good paying jobs, but a lot different than the 200,000 jobs,” Wood said.

State Rep. David Levdansky, D-Allegheny, who favors a severance tax and a moratorium on leasing public land for gas drilling, said he was disappointed his alma mater “has chosen to serve as a facade for an industry-sponsored project … It doesn’t meet the rigorous standards of good academic research as far as I’m concerned.”

But it was not unusual for such technical or economic impact studies to be funded by industry, said one of the study’s authors, University of Wyoming energy economics professor Tim Considine, who taught at Penn State until 2008.

Considine said while their work may serve as a lightning rod for a sensitive topic, “the methods we use are standard … our analysis can stand up to any sort of scrutiny.”

The university has taken no position on the findings or recommendations.

“At the end of the day our faculty try to stay out of the politics and just focus on the science,” Bill Mahon, vice president of university relations, said Monday.

“Penn State is doing more than $765 million in annual research and the claim that we would jeopardize a stellar international research reputation over a small research project is a pretty big stretch,” he said.