Governor Hochul Can Help Ukraine — by Changing New York’s Fracking Policy

Governor Hochul would like her constituents to believe she could not be a stronger supporter of Ukraine. She has ordered that nation’s blue-and-gold flag to fly at the state capital at Albany; she’s extended her welcome to war refugees. But as Vladimir Putin squeezes Europe’s natural gas supply and a frigid winter looms, Ms. Hochul is not even considering the most significant step she could take to help: reversing New York’s ban on developing its upstate natural gas resources through hydraulic fracturing. Ms. Hochul could join another Democrat, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Senate nominee John Fetterman, who has moved away from his previous support for a moratorium on that state’s robust fracking industry. Even the Netherlands, the Washington Post reports, is re-examining plans to shut down gas drilling in its region of the North Sea. It’s hard to view opening the gas fields of New York state’s portion of the vast Marcellus Shale reserves as an extreme step. Neighboring Pennsylvania has a thriving gas drilling industry which employs about 24,000 people and contributes about $583 million to Pennsylvania’s economy annually. Opening neighboring parts of New York’s long-depressed Southern Tier region to drilling would not lead to overnight increases in liquefied natural gas shipments to Europe. But futures markets would take note in pricing. Moreover, the symbolism would be powerful. New York state would send the message that it stands with Europe, whose citizens are facing a cold winter, as their energy costs rise. Its manufacturing will suffer from those high prices.But the possibility of opening the Empire State’s significant gas fields — raised by her Republican opponent, Congressman Lee Zeldin — is “dead on arrival,” Ms. Hochul has said. To suggest otherwise, she added, is “out of touch with New York values.”Such is the contemporary Democratic Party—in thrall to the interests of those with second homes Upstate at the expense of the well-paying, blue-collar jobs that fracking there would provide. Geologists have estimated that the Marcellus Shale formation overall may contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The federal Energy Information Administration estimates that total 2021 shale gas production in the US was 26.8 trillion cubic feet. Such numbers have led Mr. Zeldin to assert that “if New York would reverse the . . . ban on the safe extraction of resources under many parts of the state, jobs will be created, energy costs will go down, communities will be revitalized, and our state can prosper again.” The Republican should add support for Ukraine to that list of benefits. Indeed. if every state had followed New York’s example, America would today be in no position to fulfill its own energy needs nor to export the liquefied natural gas that will help Europe. Ms. Hochul prefers to signal the Empire State’s environmental virtues while leaving to Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Pennsylvania the critical need of providing power. There was a time when American leaders thought of our industrial capacity as part of an “arsenal of democracy” that would help save Europe from fascism. As a latter-day tyrant squeezes those same European countries, it’s time for New York to rediscover that role.

Governor Hochul Can Help Ukraine — by Changing New York’s Fracking Policy

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