Region 3: Energy in the Inland Basin

The eastern edge of Ohio is a coal-producing region, where mining occurs in the same Pennsylvanian period deposits of the Appalachian Basin that have long been famous in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Deposits in Ohio are high in sulfur compared to those further east and so have been in less demand since environmental regulations began in the 1990s.

Recently the rate of natural gas production in the region has greatly increased, from both the Appalachian Basin deposits in eastern Ohio and much older Ordovician period marine deposits. This production increase has occurred through use of a particular extraction technique, high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing, in the Utica Formation.

As in the Central Lowlands, because of the significant farming industry in this region, biomass also provides a significant amount of energy in the form of biofuels.

Oil and gas

Oil and gas form from organic matter in the pores of sedimentary rocks. Shale in particular is often organic-rich, because organic matter settles and accumulates in the same places that fine clay and silt particles settle out of the water. Further, such quiet waters are often relatively stagnant and low in oxygen, thus organic matter decay is slow. Because oil and gas are under pressure, they will move to areas of lower pressure, gradually upward, through tiny connections between pores spaces and natural fractures in the rocks.

Often, natural gas and oil are trapped below the surface under impermeable layers that do not have sufficient spaces for liquids and gases to travel through. Folds or “arches” in impermeable layers, or faults in rock layers, are common ways of trapping oil and gas below the surface. Most oil and gas has been extracted using the “conventional” technique of seeking such reservoirs and drilling into them, allowing the gas or oil to come to the surface through a vertical well.

Some impermeable layers contain oil and gas that has never escaped. In the 2000s the fossil fuel industry began to access these resources through a method, known as high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing, that creates thousands of small fractures along impermeable rock layers. The method has greatly increased oil and gas production, but has also been a very controversial topic involving the issues of environmental impact and carbon emissions.