Natural Gas

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Natural gas news from a hundred years ago offers great perspective for discussing one of the cleanest sources of energy available then and still today.

I thought it might be fun and illuminating to look back 100 years ago at what was happening with natural gas. It is eye opening, given all we’ve learned over the last century and, of course, there is little new under the sun. Consider these 100-year old news items (emphasis added):

• It’s All About the Risk Taking!
• Foxburg Gas Well Scores Big!
• Iron City Came About Due to Gas!

The first piece of old news illustrates the ups and downs of natural gas and oil exploration and development. The industry is American in every way; comprised of financial risk-takers who grasp the potential and are all in on the pursuit of the rewards. It this spirit that launched the industry in Western Pennsylvania and has spurred amazing innovations ever since:

And, the rewards can be great as this news item in the Florida press about a natural gas well success in Pennsylvania says it all:

05 Mar 1922, Sun Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) Newspapers.com

Moreover, as we see from this clip, Pittsburgh, “The Iron City,” was built on the availability on the natural gas as one of the factors that made iron and steel production practical on a large scale there:

05 Mar 1922, Sun The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois) Newspapers.com

As the above clips demonstrate, natural gas development has been a continuous source of benefits for American society for over 100 years. It is a feature of American exceptionalism, in fact, with its risk-taking entrepreneurism, innovation and forward movement as a foundation for economic development and prosperity we now take for granted.