I. Introduction -

Over the past several years, oil and gas production and related midstream activities in the several regions of the United States - - including Texas, the Intermountain West, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania and its border states - - have increased due to spectacular discoveries in unconventional resource plays, such as shale gas, and new technologies, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Although crude oil and natural gas prices have declined due to oversupply and other factors, oil and gas development will likely continue to grow and intensify, and will move into other regions where shale resources are as yet untapped, such as Illinois and, if the recently enacted state-wide hydraulic fracturing ban is successfully challenged, in New York.