![Regional authorities on the environmental/regulatory, county planning and community impacts of oil and gas operations share insights in a pre-lunch session.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2015/05/6001258-150x150.jpg)
![Outside the Thompson Professional Development Center, the group pauses with Thomas B. Murphy (back row, second from right), Penn State Extension educator and co-director of Penn State’s Marcellus Center of Outreach and Research; and David C. Pistner (back row, right), director of special projects for Workforce Development & Continuing Education.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2015/05/6001281-150x150.jpg)
A Bulgarian delegation, fresh from a conference in Houston, visited Penn College and regional gas-related sites on Friday to continue its discussion of shale-energy development in the United States. The group is meeting with key stakeholder voices on the workforce, economic, legislative and regulatory impacts of shale development, and included a college stopover in its firsthand assessment. Comprising the group were Delian Dobrev, chair of the Energy Committee in Parliament, former minister of energy and close contact of the prime minister; Zhecho Stankov, deputy minister of energy; Delian Dimitrov, member of the Board of Directors of Bulgartransgaz (gas system operator of Bulgaria); Nikolai Nikolov, Ministry of Energy; and American Embassy representatives Emily Taneva and Sally Behrhorst.