Despite rhetoric from the gas industry, New York is likely to be worse off with fracking. The boom-and-bust cycles typical of extractive industries like shale gas take a toll on local communities. The oil and gas industry spends vastly more money on equipment than training, and employs transient workers, who follow the rigs from state to state — which means few new jobs for New Yorkers and wages sent elsewhere.
Industry-funded economic impact studies exaggerate estimates of how much gas is in the shale and how much of it can be gotten out, which overstates projections of jobs, income and tax revenue.
Pennsylvania is a good case study. An early industry estimate was that 88,000 Marcellus-related jobs would be created in Pennsylvania in 2010.
But official data show that only 65,000 jobs were created statewide in all industries in Pennsylvania in 2010, and half of those were in education, health, leisure and hospitality.
The oil and gas industry doesn't consider industries it displaces. Such industries vital to upstate New York include agriculture, organic farming, tourism, outdoor recreation, hunting, fishing and wine and beer making.
Fracking brings additional problems. Some banks will not issue mortgages on homes with gas wells.
If you can't get a mortgage or homeowners insurance, or if drinking water becomes contaminated, home values and, consequently, property tax revenue may plummet.
Governor Cuomo — you don't have to bring fracking, and its significant costs, to New York.
Jannette Barth is an an economist with Pepacton Institute LLC, a research and consulting firm in Croton-on-Hudson.