Opinion
It’s Not Too Late for New York to Start Fracking
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These gas-rich formations underlie four states—New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. New York alone has chosen to ignore this economic gift.
By Paul H. Tice
Driving my youngest son to and from college outside Albany, N.Y., the past few years has been a trip down memory lane. I grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, so upstate to me has always been the great outdoors: canoeing on the Delaware River, hiking the Appalachian Trail, and skiing in the Adirondacks.
Motoring along the New York Thruway these days, not much seems to have changed since the 1970s, including the “I Love New York” highway signs and the giant dude-ranch billboard by Exit 18 at New Paltz.
Like Rip Van Winkle, the economy of upstate New York has gone to sleep for the past few decades. Upstate continues to post slower economic growth and higher unemployment compared with the downstate and capital regions. Upstate per capita income is about 25% to 50% of the downstate average, and the gap is widening. New York’s rural areas also suffer higher rates of opioid overdose deaths and hospitalizations.
Such torpor is shocking given that roughly two-thirds of New York’s 62 counties—including the entire western portion of the state—currently sit atop the overlapping Marcellus and Utica shale formations, the most economic and prolific natural-gas play in the country. These gas-rich formations underlie four states—New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. New York alone has chosen to ignore this economic gift.
Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal.
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Paul Tice is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at NYU Stern.
Motoring along the New York Thruway these days, not much seems to have changed since the 1970s, including the “I Love New York” highway signs and the giant dude-ranch billboard by Exit 18 at New Paltz.
Like Rip Van Winkle, the economy of upstate New York has gone to sleep for the past few decades. Upstate continues to post slower economic growth and higher unemployment compared with the downstate and capital regions. Upstate per capita income is about 25% to 50% of the downstate average, and the gap is widening. New York’s rural areas also suffer higher rates of opioid overdose deaths and hospitalizations.
Such torpor is shocking given that roughly two-thirds of New York’s 62 counties—including the entire western portion of the state—currently sit atop the overlapping Marcellus and Utica shale formations, the most economic and prolific natural-gas play in the country. These gas-rich formations underlie four states—New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. New York alone has chosen to ignore this economic gift.
Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal.
____
Paul Tice is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at NYU Stern.