Upstate New York impoverished by foolish energy policies of Governor

Norman Rogers:

New York State's population is shrinking. In the year ending on July 1, 2018, New York lost more than 48,000 people. People leave New York State to avoid high taxes. In the case of upstate New York, they leave to escape perpetual recession. In upstate Rochester, New York, the home of the bankrupt Kodak, the median house price is $75,000, and 33% of the population is poor.

Ironically, New York is sitting on vast potential mineral wealth in the form of the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. These formations yield vast quantities of oil and gas when properly exploited using hydraulic fracturing (fracking). But fracking is not allowed in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo has proudly forbidden fracking, presumably in order to gain favor from the crackpot green segment of the Democratic Party. As a consequence, residents of New York living near the border with Pennsylvania often commute to jobs in the Keystone state.

Exploiting shale hydrocarbons involves drilling and fracking. Naturally, there is some disruption, but the disruption is minor compared to the value of the wealth unleashed. The crackpot greens magnify and exaggerate every potential problem. They even mislead, as in the movie Gasland, where a man lights his water faucet on fire. The implication was that fracking caused natural gas to mix with the water supply. But the area chosen already had natural gas in the water long before fracking was involved. An overview of the many crackpot organizations opposed to fracking can be seen at the website of Americans Against Fracking.

I don't call these organizations crackpot casually. Their positions bear little relation to reality or what is possible. For example, the organization 350.org advocates stopping fossil fuels and turning to 100% renewables. The anti-fracking crowd is against anything related to hydrocarbons, including even pipelines. Their justifications are fact-free junk science. Rebutting their claims is a futile and exhausting exercise that never ends.

The geopolitical benefits of fracking are huge. In ten years, the United States' energy balance of trade went from a large deficit to nearly even as U.S. oil and natural gas production increased dramatically. World energy prices have declined in the face of increasing U.S. energy production. Our dependence on imports from far-flung oil-producing countries has declined dramatically. The refining and petrochemical industry, centered in Texas, is booming.

Governor Cuomo's energy plan for New York includes investment in wind and solar power. New York has poor wind potential compared to Midwestern states. New York solar potential is about 30% less than in sunny Southwestern locations. As a consequence, green energy in New York will be even more overpriced than it is in favorable locations. In every state, wind and solar are absolutely and totally useless. In New York, they are even more useless. Wind and solar installations are built only because there are huge subsidies covering 70% of the cost. Neither are wind and solar cost-effective ways of reducing CO2 emissions.
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There is more.

Cuomo's energy policy is foolish and unrealistic.  Alternative energy is still plagued by its inability to scale to match demand.  It is especially vulnerable to extreme weather.  Even if solar panels worked consistently they are useless when covered with snow.  He is an example of how the religion of global warming makes people do illogical things.  Like Obama he is making energy more expensive and less reliable.  In the process, he is leaving a huge area of his state impoverished by his foolish policies.