U.S. Sen. candidate David McCormick says natural gas wells such as one he visited just outside of Williamsport on Thursday are what’s needed to make the state and nation energy independent.

McCormick donned a hard hat, fire retardant shirt and glasses to tour Beech Resources natural gas pad at 4430 Daughterys Run Road.

“Unbelievable,” McCormick said in response to the well pad team at the site which extracts the gas from deep beneath in the Marcellus Shale. The rig drills down 8,000 feet and then goes horizontally for another 9,000 feet, covering an area of 17,000 feet.

It is a site with $60 million to $70 million of investment and scores of subcontractor employment, with high wages and good benefits.

McCormick told the group his plan to make Pennsylvania and American energy superpowers as part of what he called his “Keystone Agenda.”

But, the reality is, transmitting the natural gas and regulations imposed by the administration of U.S. President Joseph Biden – who is supported by McCormick’s opponent in the race, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, have stymied the ability of the industry to unleash its maximum potential, he remarked.

“This is the number one thing we can do in Pennsylvania to change our future,” McCormick said. “So, I want to learn a little bit more about it.”

McCormick, who was treasury under secretary for international affairs under a the George W. Bush administration, immediately delved into questions about financials.

He asked how the land owners divide up the royalties and was told it was done ahead of time through negotiations on right-of-way.

In one such negotiation with a landowner, a farmer, lost all but 10 acres of the property but reaps the profit from having the pipeline on his right-of-way, McCormick was told.

The workers also explained how the delay on exporting Pennsylvania-produced gas was slowing down what otherwise could be more profits.

“How much has it hurt your price offshore in Louisiana and Texas?” he asked. The work crew responded that was impactful but also was the present regulatory environment in this federal administration.

While there is a slow down in the transmission of the gas, there is no shortage on these rigs keeping smaller companies and private contractors in business and thriving.

McCormick was curious about when this pad would be selling gas and he was told it would be by November.

He also asked about the rig deconstruction and reconstruction to other pad sites and how it took 250 ton cranes to relocate and rebuild the rigs.

“Unbelievable,” he said inside the air-cooled operations center, a stair climb up.

“Any methane coming off the wells?” McCormick asked, noting that was a major environmental concern. He was then told this rig tried to capture as much of it without flaring off.

A McCormick aide asked if the rig was able to recycle wastewater and was told it could and then a percentage of it could be stored and reused at the next well site.

McCormick was interested in the carbon emission question and asked if that concern was different than 20 years ago. “Has the technology gotten better?” the candidate asked.

The team remarked how they take painstaking care to be good stewards of the environment. As it is, from this vantage point on the rig site one can see the surrounding mountains, valleys, farmlands, and in the distance Bald Eagle mountain ridge.

He was told about the liners on the pad which capture any leaks or spills, and how the industry must follow strict state Department of Environmental Protection regulations.

If this state alone were a country, it would have the fourth largest natural gas reserves in the world.

However, McCormick believes under Biden’s anti-American energy policies” rubberstamped by Bob Casey, we haven’t been able to access clean natural gas, including from the Marcellus Shale.”

In his campaign, McCormick has asserted that Casey supports policies that are costing the stae jobs and driving up energy prices.

“He championed a radical cap-and-trade policy, which would have cost Pennsylvania tens of billions of dollars and half a million jobs,” the senatorial candidate stated.

As was true in the discussion with Beech Resources’ personnel, the commonwealth used to be an energy exporter, and now is an importer, he said.

“America must be energy independent — it’s good for our economy and our national security — and we can do that while simultaneously supporting Pennsylvania’s position as a leader in reducing emissions,” McCormick said.

“We need market-driven solutions and an all of the above energy agenda, not government spending that drives inflation.”