“Be vigilant,” he advises.  “I’m not suggesting that everybody in America needs to get a .22 and learn how to bark a squirrel off a tree (though if you’re interested, you aim for the branch, not the squirrel). But if you’re close enough to watch the drillers and their rigs, watch them, and report everything you see.”  [Since shale drilling began there's a fair amount of vigilance needed in McGraw's hometown of Dimock, which has seen vast scarring of the local landscape, and has reported concerns about water safety to such a degree that it has attracted national exposure.]
     Given the size of the reserves currently available and the additional known resources, there are sure to be many more landowners like the McGraw family who find themselves making it through rough economic times by offering the use of their land to gas companies. Despite some misreporting in a number of prominent media outlets, the USGS survey released in August actually showed a vast increase in the estimate for undiscovered technically recoverable gas resources.  According to Mr. Coleman, his agency’s numbers for the Marcellus Shale region have gone from 2 trillion cubic feet of gas resources in 2002 to 84 trillion cubic feet in 2011.  (The Energy Information Administration put total U.S. gas reserves at 272 trillion cubic feet in its most recent study.)  For all we know, breakthroughs in technology may lead to further discoveries, so the manner in which the country chooses to pursue this energy option will be critical.  The breathless rush to cash in doesn’t appear to be helping.