Corbett to address oil and gas drilling gathering

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett will be speaking to a seminar for the oil and gas drilling industry in Pittsburgh today.

Corbett’s lunchtime address is in Pittsburgh, which is fast becoming the regional headquarters for companies that are exploring the potentially lucrative Marcellus and Utica shales beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

The seminar topics include technical, regulatory and legal subjects. Corbett will be speaking just days after his administration asked natural gas drillers to stop one of their most troubling environmental practices: taking polluted wastewater from gas wells to riverside treatment plants in Pennsylvania that aren’t equipped to remove all the contaminants.

The companies believe that recent advances involving using hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling techniques can open up vast reserves of natural gas trapped in both shale formations.