Center for Safety & Environmental Management (CSEM) training

The layers of various kinds of shale and other sedimentary rocks that underlie much of the Appalachian Basin contain huge amounts of natural gas. With rising energy prices and new technologies in the form of unconventional gas well drilling (hydraulic fracking), extracting those energy resources has finally become financially viable in recent years. The boom in unconventional gas drilling has moved forward rapidly in Pennsylvania, and now state government is beginning to catch up with new laws and regulations.