It’s great to be in the City of Brotherly Love. From the greeting I received outside, I can see how the city earned its nickname!

And I must say it made me proud to be an American. Only in this, the freest country in the world, can people express their opinions enthusiastically and publicly. That holds for the so-called “fractivists” protesting outside and the “factivists” in this room. When I say “factivist,” I mean all of you who share a commitment to use knowledge and common sense to safely and responsibly produce the natural gas our country so desperately needs.

Because we understand this industry, we also have an obligation to speak out – not just at this conference, but out in the community. The facts we convey about the safety of our operations and the benefits of our product should kindle the hopes and calm the fears of all who are fair minded.

But as we all have discovered in recent years, not everyone we meet is fair minded, or honest about their motives. In a country where freedom of speech and freedom of the press are enshrined in the Constitution, the privilege of unfettered speech can lead to unfettered fear mongering… In addition, the privilege of uncensored publishing – if not balanced by rigorous fact checking – can lead to broad distribution of half truths and outright lies.

I am reminded of the famous words of a truly great U.S. Senator from New York and an Ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who observed that, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

So let’s talk about the facts.

FACT: The company that I lead, Chesapeake Energy, is the most active driller in the Marcellus and the most active driller in the United States, by a factor of more than two. We employ over 12,000 Americans directly and almost 100,000 indirectly. We have been horizontally drilling and hydraulically fracturing wells since I co-founded the company in 1989. Our company has performed this process 16,000 times – the most of any company in the world. And we are getting better at it with every well. Not only are we getting better economically, we’re getting better in terms of protective barriers, water management, wastewater recycling and air quality improvement.

FACT: The natural gas exploration and production industry has an excellent track record of safety and environmental integrity. Over 1.2 million wells have been fracked by our industry since 1949. Against that track record of over 1.2 million frac jobs performed by the industry, our critics can only find one or two instances of alleged groundwater pollution. And having examined those few instances ourselves, we don’t agree that fracking had anything to do with the alleged groundwater contamination.

Even in the limited gas migration incidents in Pennsylvania in the past three years that have drawn so much media attention, only a couple of dozen homeowners claim to have been affected – and these incidents were not related to fracking. They were related to issues of casing design. And more importantly, the industry worked closely with Pennsylvania DEP officials to implement an updated and customized casing system that has been effective in preventing new cases of gas migration. Problem identified. Problem solved. That’s how we do it in the natural gas industry.

But looking back, was anyone hurt or was there permanent, or even temporary, environmental damage? No, no and no. Some folks were inconvenienced, for sure, and for that we’re deeply sorry. However, tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of landowner wealth have been created by drilling in the area. Also, please remember these gas migration issues have only happened in northeastern Pennsylvania, nowhere else in the country has this occurred – those are the facts.

FACT: This wellhead you are looking at on screen is a $30 million factory. It’s a factory that never closes, and will employ at least a dozen people for at least the next 50 years. This factory produces federal, state and local tax revenue. It pays landowners leasing bonuses and production royalties. It supports local school districts and non-profits. It reduces the price of just about everything we buy and gives American entrepreneurs in both rural and urban communities a strong incentive to stay and build their business in the Marcellus.

According to a newly-released study of Marcellus natural gas development by Penn State University, the shale gas revolution is the biggest opportunity to hit Pennsylvania since the steel industry more than 100 years ago. And as my friend John Surma of U.S. Steel will tell you in a few minutes, we’re helping to strengthen the steel industry and other basic industries as well.

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