Almost all the communities that are affected are basically living in an economic depression and have been for much longer than the 2008 bank failures.
Go ask the people of Ohio ,Western Pennsylvania ,and upstate NY if they want drilling .
Ask them if the want the same economic opportunities that the folks of North Dakota have.
Quote:
Thanks to production of the Bakken shale fields, North Dakota enjoys the highest employment rate in the country. New home construction is booming, and builders are having a difficult time keeping up with consumer demand. And while many states are facing historic budget deficits, North Dakota is reaping the benefits of growing oil revenues that have generated back-to-back budget surpluses.
In Pennsylvania, development of Marcellus shale gas has already translated into 140,000 new jobs and $11.2 billion in economic output during 2010, according to a recent Penn State University analysis. And beneath much of eastern Ohio lies the relatively untapped Utica Shale formation, which the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program estimates will create 204,000 new jobs in a state that experienced the third-highest job loss during since the recession began. Moreover, economic output will increase by more than $23 billion and wages by $12.3 billion during the same time frame, the program concludes.
Energy Production Is Turning Economic Lights Back On - Energy Intelligence (usnews.com)
Quote:
Gas fields are taking shape in the rural counties southeast of Cleveland, and that's no wind farm. Gas is a proven fossil fuel with a global market. In natural gas, some see an economic catalyst with the strength and reach to spark an industrial renaissance.
Already, steel mills are expanding in anticipation of a shale gas boom in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Spin-off industries are expected to spring up to supply the machinery, laborers, lodging and chemistry that energy production demands, and to exploit a new local power source.
"We'll now possess a cheaper, dependable, industrial fuel. That's hugely important for us," says Edward Hill, an economics professor at Cleveland State University.
As gas flows, Ohio can expect to see new pipelines, new refineries and new petrochemical plants, Hill and others say, as well as expansion by energy-dependent manufacturers.
Each week, residents of Northeast Ohio see new evidence of the economic potential. Youngstown has been watching a massive new steel mill rise from desolation. Marathon Oil is expanding its capacity to accept oil -- Ohio oil -- at its refinery in Canton. Republic Steel announced it is reinvesting in Lorain. Earlier this month, hundreds lined up at a hotel in suburban Akron for a novel event: a job fair for the gas rigs.
http://blog.cleveland.com/business_i..._can_reig.html
Quote:
Natural gas and crude oil industry could help create and support more than 200,000 Ohio-based jobs from the leasing, royalties, exploration, drilling, production and pipeline construction activities for the Utica shale reserve. The state could experience an overall wage and personal-income boost of $12 billion by 2015 from industry spending.
The study also projects royalty payments to landowners, schools, businesses and communities could increase to as much as $1.6 billion by 2015—a number that exceeds the total amount of royalties distributed by Ohio’s natural gas and crude oil industry in the last decade. Total tax revenue from oil and gas exploration and development in the Utica shale formation from 2011 until 2015, including severance, commercial activity, ad valorem (property), federal, state and local taxes, is projected to be approximately $479 billion. Industry expenditures related to Utica shale development could generate approximately $12.3 billion in gross state product and result in a statewide output or sales of more than $23 billion.
http://www.oogeep.org/downloads/file...ber%202011.pdf
The environmentalists don't have a case . The impact is minimal . The fracking occures well below(thousands of feet) where the ground water and aquifers sit. This is not new technology . Fracking has occurred in over a million wells in the US for over 6decades. There has never been a case of ground water contamination where hydraulic fracking is utilized .
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EPA also reviewed incidents of drinking water well contamination believed to be associated with hydraulic fracturing and found no confirmed cases that are linked to fracturing fluid injection into CBM wells or subsequent underground movement of fracturing fluids. Although thousands of CBM wells are fractured annually, EPA did not find confirmed evidence that drinking water wells have been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing fluid injection into CBM wells.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/pdf..._exec_summ.pdf
So if it is a proven clean method going back 6 decades then what is achieved by the President delying a decision for 6 more months ? Could it be that he wants to make a dramatic announcement in the spring of a Presidential campaign will at a campaign stop in a key swing state like Ohio ? Nahh . He wouldn't delay the creation of 200,000 jobs for political reasons