In case you missed it: Cheney, open space, and Marcellus

Hopefully, everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Below is a roundup of several newsworthy bits you may have missed this past month.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney – God, I love saying “former” – has been passing on the turkey and gravy for some time now, apparently. He is freaking skinny!

If you don’t believe me, click here.

• On a more serious note, Pittsburgh became the first Pennsylvania city to ban gas drilling. The unanimous vote by Pittsburgh City Council imposes a total ban on drilling within the city limits. Councilman Doug Shields said that drilling companies were putting jobs and making money before people’s health, according to the Associated Press. Attorneys for the gas companies promised to sue.
• In case you haven’t noticed, natural gas is quite lucrative these days. EOG Resources recently sold 50,000 net acres in Bradford County to Houston-based Newfield Exploration Co., for $405 million.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer published a great article on the financial benefits of open space. You know … not drilling all the resources out of the land. According to the article, Chester County has protected 144.7 square miles.

This open space resulted in $2.1 billion in added property value (or $11,060 per home), 3,225 jobs, $10.7 million in total taxes, and more.

The full story by Diane Mastrull is here.

Michael Hays, the author of this post, is the communications chair of the Chester County Young Democrats and a borough council member in Spring City.

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