I think the act of banning was more symbolic , and i might add that a flurry of banning happened as a result , Lawrence Township , Fayette Township/county and others , the statement by Josh Fox , the film maker responsible for "Gasland" the documentary highlighting the town of Dimock in Northeastern Pa , "We need to start somewhere and Pittsburg is a great place to start" is why i think it was more symbolic. I don't know for sure if there was proposed activity or permits given and leases signed. What i DO KNOW for sure is that it would have been nice for this to happen in Harrisburg at the State level but we can't even get a tax out of the new Gov. So they did what they could do. I know the amount of activity in the Southwest corner of the state has increased twofold since last year , the numbers come from Penn State and they refer to it as "rig count" , at this time last year there were 35 drilling rigs working on the Marcellus Project , a year later there are 79 drilling rigs working on Marcellus. They also made the statement that the crews operating the rigs have steadily become more efficient and can complete more sites as time goes on and they become more proficient , they called it "punching out holes" They also predicted that the visible activity would shift from the southwest part of the "Belt" to the southeast corner of the "Belt" which is Somerset , Bedford , Fulton , Adams , Franklin , etc. Overall I think it was a VERY COOL thing they did in Pittsburg and like Josh Fox said , WE GOTTA START SOMEWHERE!!!! WAY TO GO PITTSBURG!!!!!
