About two and a half years ago, Penn State was featured on Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life, a weekly public radio show whose producer Sara Koenig and other TAL editors explored the undesired accolade our university had won a few months earlier from The Princeton Review.

The same year that Penn State lost freshman Joe Dado, we were America’s #1 Party School — an unscientific distinction, to be sure, but a widespread one nonetheless.

Well, Ms. Koenig has apparently been back on her journalistic grind over the past several months, as she came out this weekend a piece on the Marcellus Shale that used a discussion of Penn State’s influence as the fulcrum for its overall narrative. Her story suggests that the development of the Marcellus Shale is the product of widespread collusion between academia (specifically Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences), industry, and politics despite empiric data that hydraulic fracking has a negative impact on local environments.

Terry Pegula, the billionaire benefactor behind the $88 million incoming varsity hockey program, gets a shout-out in the report for his business, East Resources, which was bought last year by Shell.

You might remember the time I ran into Terry Pegula at a Penn State football tailgate and asked him what one thing he would tell Penn State students if he had the chance. He said,

I would tell students that this contribution could be just the tip of the iceberg, the first of many such gifts, if the development of the Marcellus Shale is allowed to proceed.

Interesting quote in the context of this episode I think. You should download the MP3 and give it a listen; you can also stream it online. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Other Links
Penn State Extension – Natural Gas
Penn State Live Tag Page for ‘Marcellus Shale’