IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1444 
Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives that the Susquehanna 
River Basin Commission should carefully consider the energy needs of 
the United States and the economic development needs of the region 
before limiting natural gas exploration and development in the Marcellus 
Shale formation. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 16, 2008 
Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives that 
the Susquehanna River Basin Commission should care-
fully consider the energy needs of the United States 
and the economic development needs of the region before 
limiting natural gas exploration and development in the 
Marcellus Shale formation. 
Whereas spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year 
on foreign oil to fuel cars and trucks has weakened the 
economy, the environment, and national security; 
Whereas after decades of debate about the dangers of becom-
ing reliant on foreign oil and how that reliance has dam-
aged our economy and weakened our national security, 
the United States has grown more dependent on foreign 
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•HRES 1444 IH 
oil, and the dire consequences are being felt across the 
Nation; 
Whereas the United States is borrowing itself into national 
bankruptcy in the amount of $700 billion a year for im-
ported oil, and this is not sustainable; 
Whereas the public of the United States needs to know there 
is an alternative to our failed energy policies of the past; 
Whereas energy is the Nation’s single biggest challenge, the 
need to meet that challenge is urgent, and there is an an-
swer through the natural gas of the United States; 
Whereas in early 2008, Terry Englander, a geoscience pro-
fessor at Pennsylvania State University, and Gary Lash, 
a geology professor at the State University of New York 
at Fredonia, produced estimates that the Marcellus Shale 
formation might contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet 
of natural gas; 
Whereas the presence of an enormous volume of potentially 
recoverable gas in the eastern United States has great 
economic significance, and this natural gas is closest to 
the highly populated areas of New Jersey, New York, and 
New England; 
Whereas gas produced from the shallower, western portion of 
the Marcellus Shale formation could be transported to 
cities in the central part of the United States and have 
a positive impact on the stability of the natural gas sup-
ply of the surrounding region for several years; 
Whereas if the Marcellus Shale formation holds up to the op-
timistic expectations of some natural gas experts, Penn-
sylvania, Ohio, New York, and West Virginia could tem-
porarily have an enormous boost in income over the next 
few decades; 
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•HRES 1444 IH 
Whereas local economies could see an increase in employment 
and revenue as a result of the drilling into the natural 
gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation, according to a report 
from the Penn State Workforce Education and Develop-
ment Initiative; 
Whereas the above-mentioned report estimates that for each 
billion dollars of royalty income generated by the 
Marcellus Shale formation reserves, local communities 
could gain 7,880 jobs in the first year, and close to 8,000 
in the second; 
Whereas the increase in drilling has already resulted in a 
large demand for workers, entry-level jobs with drilling 
companies and well servicing companies, and a variety of 
jobs throughout the region; 
Whereas more than 72 percent of the tri-state Susquehanna 
watershed, covering portions of New York, Pennsylvania, 
and Maryland, are underlain by the Marcellus Shale for-
mation and other natural gas rich shale formations; 
Whereas advancements in technology for capturing natural 
gas in shale formations require operators to inject large 
amounts of water several thousand feet underground to 
break up the rocks; 
Whereas on August 15, 2008, the Susquehanna River Basin 
Commission (SRBC) notified the natural gas operators 
that as of October 15, 2008, any amount of water with-
drawn or consumptively used to develop wells in the 
Marcellus, Utica, or other shale formations in the Sus-
quehanna River watershed would require prior approval 
from the SRBC; 
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Whereas this is the first time in the SRBC’s 37-year history 
they are imposing this type of requirement on an entire 
class of projects rather than on an individual project; 
Whereas the SRBC has indicated it will only consider quan-
tity and rate of water usage, location of water (ground 
and surface sources) for withdrawals and consumptive 
uses, the potential to alter the physical, biological, chem-
ical or hydrological characteristics of the basin’s water re-
sources, and the potential to affect interstate water qual-
ity; and 
Whereas the SRBC’s initial public statement has not indi-
cated they will consider the broad energy needs of the 
United States or the economic development needs of com-
munities in the immediate region: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, that it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that the Susquehanna River Basin Commis-
sion should give the same consideration to the energy 
needs of the United States and the potential jobs that 
could be created by a proposed project as is accorded to 
other factors, such as quantity and rate of water usage, 
location of water (ground and surface sources) for with-
drawals and consumptive uses, the potential to alter the 
physical, biological, chemical, or hydrological characteris-
tics of the basin’s water resources, and the potential to 
affect interstate water quality, when drafting a regulation 
and reviewing a project application related to natural gas 
drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation. 
Æ 
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