https://www.city-journal.org/heating-new-york-natural-gas
Governor Andrew Cuomo recently said that population losses in New York State—which has the highest outmigration in the U.S.—are “climate-based.” The state’s demographic problem, he claims, is not caused by its crushing tax burden—also the highest in the country—or by restrictive business regulations, but by the weather. It’s too cold.
If the governor is right, and frosty winters are indeed driving people out of New York, the state needs a way to warm things up, and quickly. Fortunately, a bonanza of cheap, clean heat is available: the Marcellus and Utica shale formations, which range from Kentucky to Ontario, are two of the largest sources of natural gas in the world. And they pass directly beneath western, central, and Southern Tier New York—the poorest (and coldest) parts of the state. Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas from the shale beneath these struggling regions could help solve their heating and economic problems simultaneously. If New York’s abundant shale-gas supply can help attract new industries and employment opportunities, it might even reverse the state’s loss of population. Several studies over the last decade agree that shale-gas development could create billions of dollars in new economic activity, along with tens of thousands of jobs.