Representatives of industry, labor, and government said Pennsylvania’s
Marcellus Shale natural gas production could represent a tremendous economic
opportunity for Philadelphia at the end of the pipeline – if only there were
enough pipelines.

“Despite the fact that this area of greater Philadelphia is relatively
close to where that gas is being produced, there is grossly insufficient
infrastructure to move that gas from the point of production to the point of
consumption,” said John Walsh, chief executive of UGI Corp., the Valley
Forge energy company that has proposed a $1.1 billion pipeline from
Pennsylvania to New Jersey.

Gov. Wolf’s commerce secretary, Dennis Davin, who spoke at a separate
conference session, endorsed the pipeline build-out even though Wolf’s
Democratic administration is under pressure from activists, including the dozen
or so who marched briefly outside the Convention Center, to halt fossil-fuel
development.

“Philadelphia has great energy assets, and we are committed to helping to
develop those energy assets through funding and other means of support,”
Davin said. “We know we need to get the gas to market, and Philadelphia is
one of the ways to get the gas to market.”

The two-day conference, sponsored by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, featured a
keynote address by former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose law
firm represents a number of large energy companies. But much of the confab
remained fixed on local topics, in line with the sponsor’s aim to build support
in Southeastern Pennsylvania.