The Shale Insight Conference made its return to the Bayfront Convention Center this week.  This annual event brings in people from the shale industry for several days of learning, networking and collaboration. But it also brings some controversy.

More than 800 people in the shale energy industry are learning and working to make energy more secure in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.


Dave Callahan, the President of Marcellus Shale said, "My focus is on the people driving this industry forward, responsible for massive amounts of economic development. Plus, manning great, great contributions to the environmental health of the commonwealth. We've dropped air emissions from the power production sector and dropped CO2 emissions too largely due to our product, natural gas."


But environmental activists said energy produced by fracking is far from clean. Sister Pat Lupo with the Benedictine Sisters said, "We know as a result of fracking, there's air pollution, there's ground pollution, there's water pollution, the escape of methane and toxic pollutions in the air, so there's a whole variety."


Members of the Benedictine Sisters, Mercyhurst University, and even groups from Pittsburgh made their voices heard outside of the convention center, but they weren't alone. Jenny Tompkins, the Clean Water Campaign Manager at Penn Future said, "We've been wanting to let them know that there are people in Erie who are deeply concerned about this and the misleading messaging that's going to be on display in Erie for the next day and a half as well."


Although faced with opposition, energy leaders said they believe they can still provide energy while keeping the environment safe. "Technology that isn't just about making the companies and making the processes more efficient, it's about making them more sustainable. It's a tremendous opportunity to disprove the false narrative that you can't have economic development and environmental protection at the same time", said Callahan.

People opposed to fracking said even though there is only on fracking well in the Erie area, they want to keep the great lake protected.