It's a gas, gas, gas

Nary a week goes by without some news item about Marcellus shale, the great gaseous hope of the Pennsylvania energy economy. Last week, Cecil-based Consol Energy agreed to pay $3.5 billion to Virginia's Dominion Resources Inc. for its Appalachian natural gas exploration and production business, as well as rights to 1.6 million acres, a third of which go right through the "fairway of the Marcellus shale." (Does that mean they'll be keeping the grass nice and short?) In the same week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will spend $1.9 million on a study to investigate "the potential adverse impact that hydraulic fracturing may have on water quality and public health," in Pennsylvania and several other states.

... last week, the Post-Gazette published its annual Top 50 section; this year's theme was business sustainability, and how the green movement can power Pittsburgh's growth. Visit post-gazette.com/businessnews/top50/ for the full report.

"Every vote around here is a heavy lift."

-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the herding of Democratic members in advance of a planned vote on the landmark health care reform bill. As of Friday, the U.S. House was still on track to vote on the health bill this Sunday; last week, the Congressional Budget Office released financial projections for the overhaul, saying that the plan would eventually cut $1.2 trillion from the nation's budget deficit.

Highmark Inc., the region's largest health insurer, sued the state Insurance Department, claiming the state was illegally passing sensitive, proprietary data on to third-party auditors, and also claiming the state had exceeded its authority to investigate the state's health insurance landscape. A Commonwealth Court hearing has been scheduled for Monday to consider Highmark's request for an emergency injunction. Later in the week, a state Senate committee will hear testimony related to Highmark's growing share of the retail vision market.

First it gets a giant prehistoric salamander named after it -- Fedexia striegeli -- because the fossil was found on FedEx property, near Pittsburgh International Airport. Then its earnings came in: The Tennessee-based company reported its third-quarter earnings more than doubled over the same quarter last year, beating analyst expectations and bringing in 76 cents per share. That's good news for the U.S. economy, since more shipments generally means more things are being bought, sold and transported across the country and even in international markets.

The mayor has not, to our knowledge, changed his name in an effort to lure Google's high-speed Internet experiment to Pittsburgh. But he is urging Pittsburghers to visit the website pittsburghgoesgoogle.com to nominate the Steel City to be part of the great Google experiment. The mayor said Google's project could make the Internet 100 times faster than it is now, "something that could transform education, health care, business and everyday life," according to PG reporter Joe Smydo. Even better, you could download your illegally pirated movies in mere seconds.

Pepsi junkies throughout the city are panning Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's proposed 2-cents-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, such as pop, energy drinks and sweetened iced tea. That translates to an extra 40 cents for a 20-ounce soda, and a tax of $1.35 on a 2 liter bottle.

The city claims the tax could generate an estimated $25 million a year in revenue -- supposing we don't all switch to diet soda, which wouldn't be taxed, and start smuggling in cases of pop from Costco.

"Money Q&A" and "Company Town" are featured exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.