Hydraulic Fracturing Moratorium Is Holding New York Back

The Energy Information Administration recently announced that U.S. proven natural gas reserves were at the highest point of all time. This is great news, but there is one glaring problem—New York.

From 2012 to 2013, proved natural gas reserves increased by 10 percent, even as U.S. natural gas production broke records.

Pennsylvania led the way with an increase of 13,535 billion cubic feet of new proven natural gas reserves. This is because of the Marcellus and the Utica shales, which underlie Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York.

This is all great new, except one thing—New York’s proved natural gas reserves fell even as Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio’s natural gas reserves dramatically increased. The reason has nothing do to with the geology or the actual resources in the ground, but everything to do with politics. New York has a moratorium on large scale hydraulic fracturing—the technology that is driving these large increases. As a result, New York’s proved natural gas reserves are falling while their neighbors are increasing. That’s too bad for New York’s consumers and underemployed, who could be enjoying the economic benefits of energy production from shale deposits if politics could stop keeping them from going to work and paying less for their energy.

New York’s falling proved natural gas reserves shows that geology is important, but geology is meaningless when politicians prevent people from looking what is underneath their own lands. It’s a shame when anti-energy politics hurts real people, like it does in New York.