A pair of national professional organizations for geologists and hydrologists are hosting a symposium in Raleigh this summer on two hot topics: shale gas and fracking.

The two-day symposium sponsored by the American Ground Water Trust and the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists will cover a range of issues, including regulation, litigation, economics, social impacts and environmental risks of natural gas exploration in shale rock formations.

"Presenters will come from many backgrounds," said Richard Kolb, senior geologist at Duncklee & Dunham, an environmental consulting firm in Cary. "We are inviting speakers to what we plan to be a set of balanced presentations, not 'lobbying' one way or the other for shale gas, but instead to present all sides of the technology and the challenges it presents to North Carolinians."
 

In letters to us and our sister paper The Charlotte Observer, the president of the N.C. Association of Registers of Deeds criticized our story last week about association spending.

The letter, which you can read here, says the story contained "distortions and half truths."

The letter also notes that the association voted to raise private funds to provide two, $2,500 scholarships each year to the family members of registers of deeds, who are county-elected officials making in some cases more than $100,000 a year. The association members also decided to open the scholarships up to the family members of rank and file employees in the registers of deeds' offices.

As for the conferences, association president Wayne Rash said they are mostly about public business, not having fun. A conference schedule (see PDF below) shows the four-day conference  has no business conducted on Saturday; a golf tournament, reception and banquet on Sunday; a Monday evening cookout at a nearby mountain park; and a reception, banquet and dancing at the conference's close on Tuesday evening.

One of the conference work sessions on Tuesday afternoon was originally entitled: "Today's Technology=Election Wins." One of the speakers confirmed his part of that session was to help registers of deeds use social media to get re-elected. (See second PDF below.)

Much of the association's money comes from dues charged to registers of deeds offices, conference registration fees and contributions from vendors who do business with the officials.

Documents:

The rapid growth of solar energy in North Carolina has won the state bragging rights as this year's host of the nation's oldest solar conference.

The American Solar Energy Society said it has picked Raleigh to host its 40th annual conference in May. The confab at the Raleigh Convention Center will be the group's first in this state.

It's also the second time Raleigh has been picked to host a major alternative-energy event.  Previously, the Electric Power Research Institute, an arm of the electric industry, picked the Raleigh Convention Center for its July 2011 meeting on the plug-in electric car, the group's first national conference outside California.

The five-day solar conference is expected to draw 5,000 academics, manufacturers, installers, trainers, utility reps and government types for panel discussions, presentations of papers, as well as technical and training sessions.

The final day of the event, Saturday, May 21, is open to the public for roaming the exhibit hall, checking out the latest technology and talking to contractors.

Clean energy aficionados will have a packed calendar for green networking next month if they attend a series of conferences scheduled in Raleigh.

At least three green-themed conferences are scheduled in May in less than two weeks, with two of those confabs taking place simultaneously at two different venues.