Brian Brock; a retired geologist; Jerry Atcon, a former systems engineer; Chip Northrup, a former executive for the gas company ARCO, and Louis Allstadt, former executive vice president of Mobil Oil told a state senate panel that New York State does not have enough gas reserves to provide the type of major economic boom pro-fracking interests claim it will.

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According to The Legislative Gazette, Brock testified that "the geology of shale limits how much gas could be produced from them."

"Brock says a well’s productivity depends on a number of factors, but organic content, thermal maturity, shale thickness and depth are particularly important to the amount of gas that can be produced from a given well. Based on these four major factors, Brock said much of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations will not produce an abundance of gas as some gas industry and fracking proponents have claimed.

"In his testimony, Brock explains much of the area of the Marcellus Shale spanning into New York lacks a sufficient amount of organic content that is heated at the correct temperature to create an abundance of gas."

The hearing was held by Sen. Tony Avella, D- Queens, an outspoken critic of fracking.
Read the full story here

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