The Marcellus Shale Coalition expects 1,600 attendees at its inaugural "Shale Gas Insight" conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Wednesday and Thursday.
The event includes presentations by the CEOs of several major drilling companies and speeches by Gov. Tom Corbett and his two immediate predecessors, Ed Rendell and Tom Ridge.
Anti-drilling activists are countering the industry meeting with their own two-day event in Philadelphia that will feature a march, a rally and a conference focusing on the negative impacts of the gas drilling boom.
Supporters of shale gas tout jobs and abundant homegrown energy supplies, while detractors say drilling has fouled water and air and made people sick.
