Fuck.

Report: Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves worth $2 trillion.

Oh, this isn't gonna end well.

For those of you who haven't heard about the Marcellus Shale, let me drop some pseudo-geology on you. There's natural gas in really deep rock formations. The problem with a lot of these formations is that they're dense. The Marcellus is the largest in the US, and it stretches from southern New York into West Virginia.

The thing about this gas and oil is that it's not just sitting there in a big ol' reservoir-- there simply aren't big gas filled gaps in the rocks. Thus, to harvest the gas, you need to create gaps. Enter hydrofracking.

Hydrofracking essentially involves injecting massive amounts of water and chemicals into the rock to open up spaces for the gas to flow to. Basically, you're creating pockets of gas that will flow into your well.

There's already been significant development of the Barnett Shale in and around Texas. Fun times.

Anyhow, the Marcellus dwarfs the Barnett in size, and oil companies have been licking their chops about it for some time.

Interesting story: During the Bush administration, the U.S. government exempted hydrofracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Lately, there have been, um, concerns, and the the EPA has started holding hearings. I admit, it has been kinda fun to watch the debate about whether injecting poison into the ground is a good thing, or a bad thing.

Right on cue, the American Petroleum Institute dropped this report, detailing how oil and gas companies the hard working folks of America will make trillions if we only stop worrying and listen to the experts. That hasn't worked so well in the past for folks in these parts.