Consumer Energy Alliance Report: Shale industry has energized West Virginia

This week, Chris Ventura, executive director of the Alliance, said the consumer advocate organization’s latest report, “Powering West Virginia,” shows Mountain State energy consumers are the winners when it comes to lower natural gas prices. Ventura said in 2006, natural gas cost consumers $10 per mcf or 1,000 cubic feet. Today, that figure is $4 per mcf, according to Ventura.

Ventura noted that increased production of the mineral-rich Marcellus and Utica shale formations has identified West Virginia as the seventh-largest natural gas producing state in the country. The Mountain State’s natural gas industry has realized “relatively steady production and even job growth” as opposed to a severe downturn in the state’s coal industry in 2012, reports indicate.