December 26, 2011

State of Denial: How New York May Squander Its Energy Boom

By Gary Jason
The Great North American Energy Renaissance is going full-bore, and it offers finally the prospect of true American energy independence.  This renaissance is due to the application of relatively recent technologies, such as horizontal drilling and fracking, to hitherto commercially unviable sources of fossil fuel deposits, such as oil sands and shale rock formations. Two recent stories -- ironically from the same source, the New York Times -- illustrate federalism in action.  Together, they describe how two different states have reacted to this energy renaissance. The first piece reports the continued economic transformation to North Dakota due to shale drilling operations.  It describes how mini-communities are springing up on the Northern Prairie to house the (primarily male) workers.  The story talks about two such "man camps," each housing around 3,700 workers. The problem, you see, is that North Dakota -- with an unemployment rate of 3.5%, the lowest in the...(Read Full Article)