IUP Student Union (the HUB); Eberly Auditorium; and the Indiana Theater, Downtown Indiana, Pa.
The gains from natural gas from Marcellus Shale are well known–jobs, energy, and economic gains for secondary business and industry. A three-day symposium, “Marcellus Shale and a Sustainable Future: Balancing Energy, the Economy, and the Environment,” explores the lesser-known aspects, such as the historical, social-environmental, legal, political, and health issues related to gas extraction. The conference includes a balanced series of topics, with speakers and panelists from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Duquesne University, and SUNY-Oneonta, plus University of Pittsburgh faculty, other regional scholars, state-elected and agency officials, corporate executives, and representatives from statewide environmental groups, as well as community members and students.
Free admission to all events.
Tentative Schedule
Wednesday, November 3, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Gasland documentary (2010 Sundance Film Festival Award) by Joshua Fox, Milanville Pa.
IUP College of Business and Information Technology, Eberly Auditorium, with panel discussion. Student facilitators from the IUP Anthropology Club, IUP ECO, and the IUP chapter of the national Society of Professional Journalists
Guest Panelists:
- Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania State director of Clean Water Action
- Paul Hart, President of Hart Resource Technologies, Inc., Pennsylvania Brine Treatment, Inc.
- David Prushnok, Vice President of P & N Coal Company, Indiana, PA
- Other participants to be announced
Music performed by The NewLanders (tentative)
Thursday, November 4, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Full-day symposium with presentations on the hour, including afternoon student session and posters. IUP Student Union, Ohio Room
8:00-9:15 a.m. The History of Resource Extraction in Northern Appalachia
- Dr. Jim Dougherty, director, IUP Center for Northern Appalachian Studies, IUP Department of Sociology, “Legacies of the Coal Industry”
- Samuel MacDonald, author, “On The Agony of an American Wilderness: The History of Logging in Appalachia“
- David Waples, instructor at Penn State University-Behrend, manager of corporate communications at National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, “Energy’s Stepchild: a History of Appalachian Natural Gas Industry”
9:30-10:45 a.m. Marcellus Shale Overview: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- David Yoxtheimer, representative from Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, “Marcellus Shale Development in Pennsylvania”
- Jim Ferlo, Pennsylvania State Senator, 38th Senatorial District, “Legislation on Drilling in Pittsburgh” (tentative)
- Dr. Brian Okey, IUP Department of Geography and Regional Planning, “Natural Gas in the Context of Traditional and Alternative Energy Sources”
11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Marcellus Shale: What Lies Below: Environmental and Social Impacts – Community Drinking Water
- Dr. Conrad Dan Volz, University of Pittsburgh, Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, “The fractracker.org data platform, a hypothesis generating tool for tracking Marcellus Shale gas extraction impacts”; and “Preliminary results of air sampling for Hazardous Air Pollutants from gas field operations”
- Cindy Rogers, The Evergreen Conservancy, “Perspectives on Fracking and stream quality in Indiana County”
12:30-1:45 p.m. Environmental and Social Impacts Part II – Safety and Ecological Sustainability
- Dr. John Stolz, Duquesne University, Center for Environmental Research and Education “The Ecology of Marcellus Drilling and What it Means to You”
- Dr. Laura Rhodes, IUP Department of Safety Science, “OSHA Standards, Fracking, and Worker Safety”
2:00-3:15 p.m. Political and Legal Considerations
- John Baillie, senior attorney, PennFuture, “The PA Fair Pooling Act”
- Hon. Dave Reed, Pennsylvania State Representative, 62nd Legislative District, “The Fair Pooling Act in Our Region”
3:30-5:00 p.m. Interdisciplinary IUP Student Research on Marcellus Shale — Papers and Poster Session
IUP Student Union, Monongahela Room
- Participation from IUP departments, including Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Biology, Journalism, Safety Science, English, Geoscience, and Social Science Education
7:00-8:30 p.m. Keynote Speaker, Eberly Auditorium
- Dr. Ron Bishop, Professor, Department of Chemistry, State University of New York-Oneonta. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Pennsylvania in the National Context”
Opening music performed by Joe’s Legacy: The Joe Yeslovich Family Fiddlers, featuring Dr. Carl Rahkonen, ethnomusicologist, IUP professor and music librarian, 6:30-7:00 p.m.
Friday, November 5, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Community showing of Gasland documentary (2010 Sundance Film Festival Award) by Joshua Fox, Milanville, Pa., followed by a panel discussion. Indiana Theater, 641 Philadelphia Street, Indiana, Pa. Student facilitators from the IUP chapter of the National Society of Professional Journalists
Guest Panelists:
- Representatives from the Indiana League of Women Voters, Facilitator Sherene Hess with Mary Beth Sweeney
- Paul Hart, president of Hart Resource Technologies, Inc., Pennsylvania Brine Treatment, Inc.
- Other participants to be announced