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People of a certain age will remember the Rocky &
Bullwinkle Show. It was a prime time
satirical cartoon that was popular decades before The Simpsons and Family
Guy. A regular feature of the show was
‘Fractured Fairy Tales’ which played on malapropisms to get you to chuckle. They were kind of ‘punny’ in their day.
Now, the governor of New York is promoting his own fairy
tale. This one is over fracking, the
controversial practice of bringing vast newly discovered reserves of natural
gas to the surface. New York is sitting on the Marcellus Shale, the second
largest known reserve of natural gas in the world at 95,000 square miles
ranging in depth from 4,000 to 8,000 feet.
If it had been discovered in Texas, every pickup truck in the state
would be on autopilot to the nearest wellhead.
Money would have been invested, drilling would have commenced, a new
source of energy would be available to the public and guys wearing boots and ten-gallon
hats would be lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills.
But, not in New York.
Many a pickup truck can be seen with a ‘No Fracking’ bumper sticker and
the environmental lobby holds a lot of sway in Albany. This is no small matter. Studies done by economists at Citigroup
project that natural gas coupled with improvements in alternative energy
sources and efficiency of power plants, factories and autos have the potential
of making the US energy independent within a decade.
Fracking will attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which
has been on the decline since the start of the Great Recession. Energy independence will reduce our net trade
deficit by approximately $433 Billion per year. Energy independence will
mitigate our national security concerns in the Middle East, reduce our carbon footprint
and create domestic jobs.
I do not mean to diminish the environmental concerns. Anyone who has seen the documentary Gasland
knows that fracking, if done improperly can ruin the water supply. But, it’s being done safely in places like
Texas and North Dakota.
To stir the pot a bit, President Obama has nominated Ernest Moniz to head the Energy Department.
Moniz comes from the MIT Energy initiative, financed by the
industry. He has expressed support for nuclear
power and has declared the risks of fracking to be “manageable”. Perhaps the President really intends to
follow through on the policies he outlined in his State of the Union speech: “this country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy
that develops every available source of American energy.”
That isn’t to say that there won’t be incidents. These activities are prone to human error, as
Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez and the BP Gulf oil spill have shown
us. But, the opportunity is too great to
ignore. The question isn’t should we or
should we not frack. The question is how
can we do it as safely as possible.
Moreover, we must be view fracking and natural gas in the
proper context. It is not the final
answer. It is a bridge solution. In the near term, it will reduce greenhouse
gases and reduce imports of foreign oil.
However, it’s equally important that we support the research and
development initiatives of government agencies like the Advance Research Projects Administration – Energy (ARPA-E) that will provide long term solutions
that will enable us to be energy independent while emitting fewer greenhouse
gases. None of the alternative energy
options are economically or technologically viable today. But, they will be some day. Just not some day soon.
For New York, there’s a broader issue. Governor Andrew Cuomo has declared his state
“Open for Business” and is backing it up with an impressive public relations
campaign. But, such declarations must be
backed up by facts. Businesses are
driven by dollars not slogans. And, New York continues to lose jobs and people to other states.
In a recent TV ad, the governor makes a big deal about his
new policies not increasing taxes. But,
if he wants his slogan to be true, he needs to come to grips with the lack of
competitiveness from which New York suffers compared to other states. Businesses set up shop in low tax, low cost
states. New York is at the opposite end
of the spectrum.
The governor must address the structural problems that cause
New York to be lagging the nation in job growth and unemployment. Otherwise the ‘Open for Business’ campaign is
just another Fractured Fairy Tale.
WHO WILL LEAD?
