Natural gas wells drilled in 2009 are generating millions in royalties for the University of Texas in Arlington. Multistory oil derricks sit just outside the front door of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Even in the western end of Pennsylvania, where the modern oil industry was born, Indiana University of Pennsylvania once powered its campus with natural gas from four wells.
Now Corbett, who wants to lift a moratorium on expanded gas drilling in state forests and open prison property to drilling, says the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserve could be a boon to state-supported colleges.
Those are the same schools whose funding he proposes to cut 50 percent to help offset the state's $4 billion deficit.
On Thursday, near Erie, in a speech to trustees from the 14 universities in the state system, Corbett said it was time to consider opening land to drilling on the six campuses within the shale reserve.
He reiterated the point Friday during a visit to the other end of the state.
Corbett, speaking to reporters after a tour of Chester Community Charter School, called drilling on campuses a "commonsense" move for a college if it had adequate room.
"I will tell you, we are looking at the prisons of Pennsylvania and the land that they have," he added.
Kenn Marshall, spokesman for the State System of Higher Education, said preliminary discussions had been taking place about using gas drilling to generate revenue for the system's universities.
Four of those schools are directly atop the shale: Mansfield, Lock Haven, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and California. Two others, Clarion and Slippery Rock, are on the edges of the reserve.
