PA Governor says yes to shale but no to solar

This December, the Corbett Administration will start handing out up to $20 million of taxpayer dollars over the next three years to businesses, local governments, non-profits and schools to buy natural gas powered trucks up to $25,000 per vehicle. At the same time the Governor has refused to support a proposed law to extend financial incentives for state’s solar industry.

The Governor is on record as declaring state incentives which aid shale gas development are positive and cost effective while incentives for solar energy are expensive and a drain on taxpayers.

Hyrdofracking comes at a cost

The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush — for natural gas.

The gas has always been there, of course, trapped deep underground in countless tiny bubbles, like frozen spills of seltzer water between thin layers of shale rock. But drilling companies have only in recent years developed techniques to unlock the enormous reserves, thought to be enough to supply the country with gas for heating buildings, generating electricity and powering vehicles for up to a hundred years.