Upstate New York residents should be allowed to do what they want with the land they own. Because upstate New York does not have the strongest economy, landowners should be able to lease their land for companies to perform fracking operations. Upstate New Yorkers will benefit from fracking.
Fracking will improve the United States economy. Fracking will provide the United States with so much natural gas that the U.S. will be the largest natural gas producer by 2017, which it can then export to other countries. In addition, President Obama said in his state of the union speech that fracking would provide 600,000 jobs nationwide. Some of these jobs will come in Upstate New York, a region that is economically depressed and could use this stimulus.
Fracking will replace coal as an energy source, which will benefit the environment. Replacing coal with natural gas will cut down greenhouse gases emissions from electric generation by 45 percent according to the International Energy Agency.
Finally, fracking will cut down the US reliance on the Middle East for sources of energy. Since the U.S. will have so much natural gas, it will not need as much oil from Middle Eastern countries. This could prove crucial if tensions between the U.S. and the Middle East escalate.
The benefits for Upstate New Yorkers from fracking are clear. The fracking industry will bring economic stimulus to a region that desperately needs it. In addition, fracking will help the environment as well as the whole country in economic and political terms. Upstate New Yorkers should be allowed to develop their land as they want.
Pierce, Richard J., Natural Gas Fracking Addresses All of Our Major Problems (2012). Journal of Energy and Environmental Law, May 2013; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-128; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-128. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2172441
