The Anti-Fracking Crowd: Denial Spreads to Academia

In a report out today, Energy In Depth exposes the latest alarmist tactic from the anti-fracking crowd. EID reveals that a report from the Clean Air Task Force "makes sweeping and erroneous predictions about future health impacts that the researchers blame on fracking -- despite the fact that emissions have been steadily declining, and that, thanks to natural gas, air quality has been improving in the United States."

The report goes on to show how the authors of the scare-tactic report routinely ignore established studies and government data in an attempt to reach their foregone conclusions. In a scathing indictment, the article's author, Randy Hildreth, says "...the authors are far more interested in garnering headlines than looking at the science," and suggests it is the reason the report was not peer reviewed.

This comes on the heels of news earlier this summer that researchers from the University of Cincinnati backed away from a year-long study that only served to debunk, not support, the idea that fracking is linked to water contamination. Perhaps it was because they had just been forced to retract a previous report that claimed fracking was causing significant air pollution in Carroll County -- due to "errors" and "miscalculations."

Now a report is released revealing how three professors at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, for a course titled "Medical Humanities in the Digital Age," plan to assume man-made climate change is fact and will not entertain opposing views. Such views will not be heard, considered or debated.

Furthermore, the professors intend to delve into "the health effects of fracking," despite the scientific evidence that such effects are a myth. According to an article on the College Fix website, (which promotes a conservative viewpoint), "The reading assignments in the fracking section focus only on its negative impacts and fail to present the other side of the issue, namely the possible benefits of fracking."

It's unfortunate that these educators, who claim to have science on their side in the climate change debate, would willingly ignore the ongoing scientific evidence that -- as EID's Jackie Stewart so eloquently put it last spring -- continues "to 'disappoint' agenda-driven anti-fracking groups."

NFL Hall of Famer Floyd Little to Highlight Our Reception Aug. 7 After the Enshrinees Roundtable

Floyd Little, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010, will be the guest at an exclusive reception sponsored by the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership on Sunday, Aug. 7, following the annual Enshrinees Gameday Roundtable in Canton.

After a stellar college career at Syracuse University, Little joined the Denver Broncos in 1967. He gained more than 12,000 all-purpose yards over nine seasons, appearing in five Pro Bowls.

The reception will take place following lunch and the annual roundtable, which features members of each year’s Enshrinee Class in an unscripted, up-close-and-personal format.

“This is our second year hosting the reception, and we’re thrilled to have Floyd Little as our guest,” said Dave Kirven, Partnership chairman. “His career speaks for itself, and our guests will have an exclusive opportunity to meet and visit with him in a relaxed, informal setting.”

Kirven said the reception will end no later than 5 p.m., giving guests ample time before the NFL/Hall of Fame Game between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts, which kicks off that evening at 8 p.m. at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Tickets for the reception are $90 and include admission to the luncheon and the Enshrinees Gameday Roundtable. Sponsorships are also available. For more information, call (330) 451-6207 or visit www.choosestark.com.

Tickets Available for 2016 Enshrinees Gameday Roundtable

Floyd Little will attend the reception after the event

For the second consecutive year, the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership will host a reception following the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinees Gameday Roundtable on Sunday, Aug. 7, at the Canton Cultural Center for the Arts.

The reception will take place in the Preyer Gallery of the Cultural Center, located at 1101 Market Ave. N. in Canton. Floyd Little, a 2010 Hall of Fame enshrinee, will be our special guest at the reception. Little, a five-time All-Pro running back gained more than 12,000 all-purpose yards during a nine-year career with the Denver Broncos.

The afternoon will begin with a luncheon at 12 noon. The Roundtable will follow at 2:30 p.m. It's known for its casual and lighthearted atmosphere. Taking center stage, the enshrinees in attendance will share stories from their careers with those in attendance.

Afterward our reception will feature light hors d'oeuvres, beer and wine until 5 o'clock.

Tickets are $90, and sponsorships (tickets included) are available. Call (330) 451-6207 for details or visit the Roundtable page on the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership website.

Evidence Continues to Confirm the Benefits of Fracking

Evidence continues to pour in confirming the benefits of fracking, which has been safely conducted in the United States since the mid-1900s.

Jackie Stewart of Energy In Depth Ohio reported last month about an update given in Youngstown by state officials that indicated Ohio will be producing more natural gas than it consumes, thanks to the success of fracking. Oil production doubled in Ohio last year, and natural gas production rose 110 percent.

The Daily Caller website included an article on May 3 that said cheaper energy produced via hydraulic fracking "lowered the cost of living for the average American by almost $750" annually since 2008, citing a report from the Energy Information Administration.

Writing in Capitol Weekly, Rock Zierman countered the claims of anti-fracking zealots like Sen. Bernie Sanders or actor Mark Ruffalo by citing a Washington Post editorial that chastised their "Keep It in the Ground" ideology as being "utterly unrealistic."

Pointing out that emissions actually declined in 2015, Zierman said "a fracking ban would be counterproductive to our economic, security and environmental interests."

The numbers don't lie, and neither do the positive results. Fracking is safe and is strengthening America's economy and our standing in the world.

Oil & Gas Jobs, Education Programs Abound in Stark and Carroll Counties, and Throughout Ohio

A recent article by Energy In Depth highlighted good news on the oil and gas job front in the State of Ohio. EID highlighted a report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services showing that between 2011 and 2015 shale accounted for more 180,000 new jobs per year statewide.

With that kind of job market, the article pointed out, shale-related businesses grew by more than 40 percent during the same period. And, with shale-related jobs paying an average of $75,000 a year, compared to a $46,000 average for other industries in the state, the economic impact of shale-related job growth is readily evident.

Educational institutions have taken note in recent years. Stark State College in Canton offers specialized training for the industry through its oil and gas programs, which include associate's degrees, one-year certificates, short-term offerings, and noncredit courses. And Marlington High School in Alliance offers an oil and gas technology program through its Career Technical Education department.

Despite the downturn in the global oil and gas industry in recent years, progress continues in Ohio, as the jobs report indicates. With more skilled workers entering the workforce from local and statewide institutions, the workforce will keep up with the job market, with the net result being the strengthening of local economies through lower unemployment numbers and a higher tax base.

Bernie Kosar Autographed Jerseys Added to Auction Items at Draft Day Experience April 28 in Canton, Ohio

Five autographed Bernie Kosar jerseys -- two from his college days at the University of Miami, and three from the Cleveland Browns -- will be among the auction items up for bids at the 2016 Draft Day Experience at the McKinley Grand Hotel in Canton, Ohio on Thursday, April 28.

Also featured will be a Pro Football Hall of Fame souvenir football autographed by Brett Favre and other members of the Enshrinee Class of 2016. Two lithographs, featuring Hall of Famers Jim Taylor and Don Shula, will be up for bids, along with other exciting.

Ticket holders for the event will receive a souvenir gold medallion minted exclusively for the Draft Day Experience. Each medallion comes in an attractive case and features the Draft Day logo on one side and the Pro Football Hall of Fame logo on the other.

Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the festivities will get underway at 7:30. The 2016 NFL Draft will be shown on giant screens in the hotel ballroom as guests enjoy delicious food, an open bar, and a roundtable discussion between picks. The roundtable will be moderated by Kenny Roda of WHBC radio, who will talk about each pick with former NFL players who will be in attendance at the event.

Former players scheduled to attend include: Hall of Famer Dave Robinson of the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins; Cleveland Browns greats Don Cockroft, Hanford Dixon and Felix Wright; Anthony Griggs (Eagles/Browns); Jeff Hartings (Lions/Steelers); and Marv Kellum (Steelers/Cardinals).

Tickets are just $125, with proceeds going toward the Legends Landing assisted living facility that will be a part of the planned Pro Football Hall of Fame Village. 

For more information about the Draft Day Experience, visit any of the links below:

• ChooseStark.com -- The website of the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership

• Canton Repository article

• The Suburbanite article

• Listen to the radio commercials that aired to promote the event: #1 here and #2 here

Players scheduled to appear at the 2016 Draft Day Experience include (clockwise from upper left) Hanford Dixon, Don Cockroft, Felix Wright, Dave Robinson, Marv Kellum, Anthony Griggs, and Jeff Hartings. 

Draft Day Experience Approaching Fast; Reserve Your Tickets Today!

Plans continue to take shape for the 2016 Draft Day Experience, April 28 at the McKinley Grand Hotel in Canton.

We'll watch the first round of the NFL Draft unfold on large projection screens in the hotel conference room, while enjoying great food, beverages, music, a silent auction and more. In addition, Kenny Roda of WHBC radio in Canton will moderate analysis of the draft picks live with former NFL players in attendance.

Speaking of former players, Hall of Famer Dave Robinson, legendary linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, will join us, along with former Cleveland Browns stars Don Cockroft, Hanford Dixon and Felix Wright, and other NFL alumni.

Commemorative Medallion

Members of the Canton Charge Girls will be on hand, as well. And, to show our appreciation to our guests, ticket holders will receive a commemorative medallion being minted especially for the Draft Day Experience. It will feature the event logo on one side and the Pro Football Hall of Fame logo on the other.

The Hall of Fame is one of the sponsoring organizations for the Draft Day Experience, along with the East Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council and the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership.

Canton Charge Girls

Tickets are $125 each, and proceeds will benefit the Legends Landing assisted living residence that is planned as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the event begins at 7:30. Corporate sponsorships are available and include a pre-event VIP reception that will offer a chance to spend time with some of our NFL alumni who will be in attendance.

Visit our website for complete details: www.ChooseStark.com. We look forward to seeing you at the Draft Day Experience in Canton on April 28!

Draft Day Experience Set for April 28 in Canton

Here's an update on the Draft Night event in Canton next month.

The 2016 Draft Day Experience is set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 28, at the McKinley Grand Hotel in Canton. Food, beverages, trivia contests, memorabilia auctions and more will be featured, as guests view the first round of the NFL Draft on large video screens. An ongoing Roundtable Discussion with former NFL players will feature comments and analysis between draft picks in a format moderated by Kenny Roda of WHBC-AM in Canton.

Former NFL stars scheduled to appear include Cleveland Browns alumni Don Cockroft, Hanford Dixon, Felix Wright and Anthony Griggs. Other NFL alumni scheduled to attend include Jeff Hastings (Detroit/Pittsburgh), Marv Kellum (Pittsburgh/St. Louis) and Pro Football Hall of Famer Dave Robinson (Green Bay). 

Cost is $125 per ticket and includes the Draft Day Experience, hors d’oeuvres, beverages, a round table discussion with former NFL players, and a silent auction. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Legends Landing, a planned independent and assisted living senior care facility residence for retired Pro Football Hall of Famers and others from the NFL’s Legends Community that will be part of the Hall of Fame Village in Canton.

The Draft Day Experience is being presented by the East Central Ohio Building and ConstructionTrades Council, in conjunction with the Stark Carroll Oil and Gas Partnership and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Event sponsorships are available. Main sponsorships include admission to a pre-event VIP Reception at 6 p.m. with NFL alumni and other special guests.

For tickets or sponsorship information, call (330) 451-6207 or visit www.ChooseStark.com.

Exciting Year of Activities Scheduled for the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership

Now that 2016 is here, it promises to be an exciting year for the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership.

It will all kick off at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 28, when we host our 2016 Draft Day Experience at the McKinley Grand Hotel in Canton. We expect a big crowd to come out and watch the excitement and drama of the NFL Draft unfold, plus enjoy great refreshments, trivia contests, football-themed memorabilia up for bids—and the company of several retired NFL players (including former Browns Don Cockroft, Hanford Dixon, and Felix Wright) who will be in attendance! Even better, the proceeds from the event will go toward the planned Legends Landing, a planned residence for retired Gold Jackets, NFL alumni and fans at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village in Canton.

More information will be announced on our website, www.choosestark.com, on our Facebook page, and in our e-newsletter, “Drill Bits.” We want to express our appreciation to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for their participation in this event, and to Ullico for their early sponsorship commitment. If you’d like to participate as a sponsor of the Draft Day Experience, call (330) 451-6207 or visit our website for details.

Speaking of Facebook, if you haven’t liked our Partnership page, please be sure to do so. We share regular updates about the oil and gas industry, along with information about our events. Go to www.facebook.com/scogp and like our page to stay up-to-date.

The same is true for our “Drill Bits” e-newsletter. Back issues are available under the “News” link on our website, www.choosestark.com. Or you can be added to our email list by calling (330) 451-6207.

Our Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinees Roundtable Reception was a big hit last August, and plans are underway for a repeat of this popular event this summer. We’ll also be back with our Shale Shoot and Utica Conference in the fall, plus more events and activities to help promote the oil and gas industry in Stark and Carroll counties. Keep up with all of our news and events on our website, Facebook page and in our “Drill Bits” e-newsletter.

The Oil and Gas Industry’s Silver Lining

With all the gloom and doom in the news about the oil and gas industry, why would anyone remain optimistic about the future of drilling and exploration in the Utica Shale?

Because the oil and gas industry remains important to the State of Ohio and it citizens, for one. Rhonda Reda, executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Program, said this an article in Ohio Gas & Oil magazine: “Ohio’s oil and gas industry has been producing crude oil and natural gas from various geological formations beneath our feet for more than 150 years. The past several years have also brought many new companies, jobs and innovations to Ohio’s industry, leading to unprecedented and record energy production levels. As a result, Ohioans are intertwined with the state’s oil and gas industry more than ever before.”

Beyond driving down gas prices at the pump—a fact that Americans are noticing across the country—shale gas development in recent years is poised to produce a boom in petrochemical and plastics manufacturing, according to an article by John Funk that appeared in the Nov. 21, 2015 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Funk writing about a Cleveland State University study, reported that it examined “the extraordinary productivity of the wells developed so far, the capacity of the processing plants and pipelines, both those in service and those on the drawing boards, and the most likely rate of additional wells being drilled and gas production over the next five years.”

Much of the shale play under Ohio and West Virginia “produces not just methane but propane, butane and ethane, a trio of hydrocarbons called ‘natural gas liquids’ or NGLs,” he wrote.

Continuing, Funk reported that the study “projects that by 2020, the region—Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia—will have such a surplus of ethane, which must be separated from methane before natural gas can be used as a fuel, that it will only make economic sense to build ethane refineries here rather than try to ship the volatile ethane to crackers on the Gulf Coast.”

As pointed out in the article, economist Iryna Lendel said that while most people tend to focus only on production, “they forget that we should be focusing on downstream development—on manufacturing, because manufacturing creates permanent jobs that require skills and pay well.”

As we shared in an article last November, those jobs are coming to Northeast Ohio—more than 2,000 during the construction of three natural gas-fired power plants in Carrollton, Lordstown and Yellow Creek Township, which is located in Columbiana County.

Tough times come along in any industry from time to time, but the ability to weather those storms and look for the silver lining in an otherwise cloudy forecast provides a vision for what the future truly has in store. And the future for Ohio, and the role the oil and gas industry will play in its economic resurgence, remains strong.

This article appeared in the February issue of ShaleMart magazine

Pipeline Construction Holds Promise for Oil and Gas in Ohio

In November 2014 the Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership sponsored "Pipeline 101," a conference that showcased how the oil and gas industry, and the pipelines that serve it, represent the backbone for economic growth in Ohio, Michigan and the surrounding region.

The topic remains timely, as evidenced by the announcement earlier this month that Kinder Morgan was moving forward with plans to build a 240-mile pipeline across Ohio. If approved, the pipeline will create as many as 1,000 jobs and, when complete, will be used to transport propane and ethane to Canada. 

According to an article in the Canton Repository, "The $500 million pipeline will have an initial capacity of 50,000 barrels per day of ethane or an ethane-propane mix. The two byproducts of natural gas production are valued in plastics production."

The company must first apply for permits from state and federal regulators before beginning work on the pipeline, which will start in Cadiz and stretch through parts of Carroll, Tuscarawas and Stark counties before crossing the state line into Michigan just west of Toledo.

Kinder Morgan didn't stop there. Before the month was over, the company had bypassed the uncertain credit markets by going directly to banks to refinance—to the tune of $1 billion—its maturing debt. The financing will enable the company to move forward with its various growth projects, including the Utopia East pipeline here in Ohio.

Meanwhile, the Akron Beacon Journal reported that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will sponsor a public hearing in February on a proposed air permit for a Medina County compressor station for the $2 billion Nexus natural gas pipeline. The pipeline, with a proposed construction timeline beginning in 2017, would stretch for 255 miles and pass through Stark, Summit, Wayne and Medina Counties in Northeast Ohio.

The ongoing construction of pipelines here and in other parts of the country are projects to watch. They will serve to create jobs and bolster local economies as the oil and gas industry continues to weather to downturn that hit especially hard in 2015. 

The Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership promotes the growth and economic impact of the oil and gas industry in Stark County and Carroll County, Ohio.

Reviewing 2015: An Advocate for Oil & Gas in Stark and Carroll Counties

It was another "eventful" year!

The Stark Carroll Oil & Gas Partnership hosted four more great events in 2015. We continue to advocate for responsible oil and gas exploration and for the use of local labor. 

Our conferences have been headlined by industry experts, providing important oil and gas updates to business and civic leaders, while our golf outing and sporting clays championships helped raise revenue in an atmosphere of camaraderie and friendly competition. 

Watch for another great schedule of events in 2016. We look forward to having you join us as we support the oil and gas industry in Stark and Carroll counties! 

Text appeared in the January edition of ShaleMart magazine (right).