Tara Hoyt was a little suspicious when gas men appeared at her parents’ organic dairy farm hear Wyalusing in Bradford County.  She was originally concerned about the possible impact on the farm so Hoyt began researching everything.

At the time of the visit, Hoyt was a communications major at Wilkes University, today she works in the gas industry.

“The more I read, the more interested I became,” Hoyt said. She decided to transfer out of Wilkes University to a new program geared towards the gas industry at Lackawanna College.  A mere two days after she graduated, Hoyt began working as a gas tech for Williams Midstream Services.  Williams Midstream runs gathering pipelines from Marcellus wells to transmission lines.

“She wears a hard hat every day, flame-retardant clothing, steel-toed boots and she gets greasy,” said Williams General Manager Ryan Savage. It’s definitely not glamorous work, but it’s work that’s open to women.   “Women are 50 percent of the population,” he said. “You’ve got to open the doors.”

Hoyt encourages young women interested in the gas and drilling industry to not be intimidated.

According to a recent federal report, the fastest 12 growing occupations in Pennsylvania are all directly related to Marcellus ShaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock.ShaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock. is one of the most highly productive types of sedimentary rock whose density provides tight stores forhydrocarbon reserves below. Marcellus ShaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock. is a rock formationA body of earth material with distinctive and characteristic properties. running through about two-thirds of Pennsylvania, and areas of New York and West Virginia. Geologists estimate that there is a large enough natural gas reserve within the shaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock. to power the United States for one to eight years..  The number of employees in the core oil and gas industries in Pennsylvania has more than doubled in the past three years. A “tsunami of jobs” are coming into the area and the opportunities are endless.  The human energy that can be generated from this is phenomenal.

The daughter of a geologist who spent her early years in Midland, Texas, Hearthway said, “I’ve grown up seeing this — what natural resources can do for a community, and it’s phenomenal.”

The gas industry is adding jobs at a faster rate than any other industry and more and more jobs are coming into the area with the boost of Marcellus drilling.