Missing the Boat

That is how New York State is described in this Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

The article details the different ways the states of Pennsylvania and New York have dealt with natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale formation which sits below both states.

New York is foregoing billions in revenue and thousands of jobs. Why? Because rich environmentalists living in New York City and misguided editorialists like those at the Democrat and Chronicle, have decried the process known as hydraulic fracturing ("hydro-fracking") as a threat to the water table.

So Pennsylvania rakes in billions and lures our young people across the border for jobs and opportunity while New York dithers and spends time and energy debating whether wind farms can be located in Lake Ontario to meet our energy needs. Like the author of the linked editorial, I'm not holding my breath for the Green Energy revolution.

This is the conclusion of the piece:

"Governor Cuomo has said he wants to lift New York's moratorium, and the state's recently released draft rules are a step forward. But they must still undergo legal review and a public comment period that could bar New York drilling for the rest of this year, if not longer. New York will also still ban drilling in about 15% of the state's portion of the Marcellus and impose more onerous rules than other states on private property drilling. Such bows toward the obsessions of rich, big-city greens explain why parts of upstate New York are the new Appalachia.


As they look across their northern border, Pennsylvanians can be forgiven for thinking of New Yorkers the way Abba Eban once described the Palestinians: They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."