On the recordApril 7, 2011
Thank you. I thank my friend for yielding back. You had mentioned the history of drilling. I very proudly represent Titusville, Pennsylvania. It's where one of my district offices is. It's the Drake well. It was 151 years ago that Colonel Drake used a wooden drill bit, drilled down 37 feet and hit oil. So drilling is not new to Pennsylvania. As you said, the first natural gas is just within or just outside of your congressional district, natural gas well. And in terms of Marcellus wells, I think it's important we talk about that. I think you have a great chart there that demonstrates exactly what we're talking about when we're talking about the Marcellus geological formation, which is not a shallow formation. {time} 1650 This is a deep well. This is 8,000 to 9,000 feet, well below when you think the water table in our area is normally maybe 1,000 feet. This is 8,000 to 9,000 feet below that. And the horizontal drilling that was developed, directional drilling, there has been 1,900 of those wells already on the ground put in. So I think it may be good to take the opportunity to talk at some point about exactly how these wells work.
