Drilling risks worth economic payoff, landowner says
by Sarah Breitenbach, Staff Writer
Cindy Stacy Marshall Stacy stands on his 373-acre Christmas tree farm, Pinetum, in Garrett County. He hopes to one day lease the land for natural gas drilling.
Cindy Stacy Marshall Stacy stands on his 373-acre Christmas tree farm, Pinetum, in Garrett County. He hopes to one day lease the land for natural gas drilling.Cindy Stacy Marshall Stacy stands on his 373-acre Christmas tree farm, Pinetum, in Garrett County. He hopes to one day lease the land for natural gas drilling.
<>Cindy Stacy Marshall Stacy stands on his 373-acre Christmas tree farm, Pinetum, in Garrett County. He hopes to one day lease the land for natural gas drilling.
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Two top Gaithersburg employees resign advertisement A mile under Marshall Stacy’s Garrett County Christmas tree farm, quite a bit of money lurks.
Natural gas, hibernating deep in the shale rock is what Stacy hopes will be his family’s long-term financial reward. But even though the state next week will undertake a study into the benefits and drawbacks of drilling into the Marcellus shale, Stacy knows any payday is probably a ways off.
The commission, which will meet for the first time Thursday, is tasked with making recommendations to the legislature for the 2012 session. But it is not required to issue a final report on the safety and best practices of drilling into the bedrock until August 2014.
Drilling in Maryland has been heavily debated for the past year as energy companies and landowners argue that natural gas is a relatively safe resource, more environmentally friendly than coal or oil and prime for extraction. Some lawmakers and environmentalists, on the other hand, say it is unclear how much cleaner natural gas extraction is, extracting it can contaminate drinking water and the risks generally are too great to begin tapping the earth in western parts of the state without further study.
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