Today in your Trail Mix:
The artifacts of prior gas booms in PA are now the quarry for "scavenger hunters."
Government officials and business leaders met yesterday to talk privately about the fate of BAE Systems in the Southern Tier.
The governor releases a video about the property tax cap.
Plus: bridges of all types!
Gas drilling
Volunteer "scavenger hunters" are searching out forgotten and abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania's forests (Susan Phillips, State Impact PA).
Gas drilling advocate, the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York, says proposed drilling regulations in New York would cost a million dollars a well to drill than in other states (Jon Campbell, Gannett).
Oil and gas industry veteran James Northrup talked to Capital Tonight about why he's opposed to hydrofracking (Maureen McManus, State of Politics).
Penn State does research on the Marcellus Shale, but declined to discuss how much funding it gets from the gas industry (Reid R. Frazier, The Allegheny Front, and Olivia Garber, PublicSource).
A study by Carnegie Mellon researchers in a peer-reviewed journal argues that $10,000 bonds on wells to pay for potential environmental clean-ups in Pennsylvania actually provides a disincentive for drillers to be careful (Donald Gilliand, Patriot-News).
Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection is considering allowing fracking wastewater from Marcellus Shale wells to be used to control ice on roads during the winter (Cheryl R. Clarke, Williamsport Sun-Gazette).
Business
Local, state and federal officials met privately on Monday to talk about defense contractor BAE Systems' relocation of its Southern Tier facility after flooding (Press & Sun-Bulletin).
Small businesses across Westover will be "hit hard" by BAE Systems' relocation (Steve Reilly, Press & Sun-Bulletin).
GlobalFoundries' plant in Dresden, Germany is struggling to keep pace with demand for a chip manufactured there (Larry Rulison, Times Union).
An Albany area biomass company has bought up five plants owned by a Quebec-based company, at a price of $93 million (Eric Anderson, The Buzz).
A year after the end of federal stimulus programs for home buyers, things are starting to look a little more normal in western New York's housing market (Jonathan D. Epstein, Buffalo News).
Twin Falls, Idaho is getting a new Chobani yogurt plant - so Ben Botkin at the Magic Valley Times-News took a look at the company's track record in New York.
Compared to other manufacturing-heavy Great Lakes states, New York has relatively fewer "poisoned places" (Zack Seward, Innovation Trail).
Recovering from flooding in a tiny Catskill town could take years for businesses and families [VIDEO] (MarieCusick, WMHT).
Property tax cap
The governor released a video yesterday that argued that property taxes are "out of control."
The spokesman for New York school boards rebutted that the state would have to provide mandate release, lest the tax cap "come at a cost to educational programs and services in school districts" (Cara Matthews, Vote Up!).
The governor also unleashed a "citizen's guide" to the tax cap (Nick Reisman, State of Politics).
Higher ed
A professor at the University at Albany has gotten a $100,000 grant to study "medical homes" and paying doctors to keep patients healthy (Cathleen F. Crowley, Times Union).
Students at the Rochester Institute of Technology made their debut at TEDxRochester yesterday (JesseHanus, Democrat and Chronicle). The Innovation Trail was also there, collecting stories about what people make, just like we did at BarCamp last week.
Auburn Memorial Hospital is considering partnering with one of Rochester's big medical systems, but which one is being kept secret (Patti Singer, Democrat and Chronicle).
Bridges
The Times Union has an awesome set of photos from the reopening of the Lake Champlain Bridge between Crown point, N.Y. and Addison, Vt. WAMC's Pat Bradley has the backstory on why the bridge was closed.
All Over Albany has pics of a different bridge: this one bridging two buildings on UAlbany's nanotech campus.
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