Tonight, Morgantown City Council will vote whether to pass an ordinance that will ban Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, within its city limits. Yesterday, Shell announced it will build a world-class cracker plant in the Appalachian Basin, probably either West Virginia or Pennsylvania. Also yesterday, New York’s General Assembly extended its ban on fracking for another year.
Drilling in the Marcellus can be a game changer for West Virginia. A cracker is estimated to create thousands of new, high paying jobs. Drilling alone will create 7,500 new jobs for North Central West Virginia over the next several years.
Drilling and hydraulic fracturing of wells has been conducted in the state for decades. Some people think that because the Legislature failed to pass a bill to more specifically regulate horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale formation that no regulation exists. Nothing could be further from the truth. The drilling and hydraulic fracturing processes are heavily regulated right now in West Virginia.
Yesterday, New York’s General Assembly said no to thousands of new jobs for the state when it failed to consider the facts and science and extended its statewide moratorium on drilling.
Morgantown leaders should consider the facts and science. If they do so, they are saying yes to one of the greatest game changers ever for West Virginia’s economy.
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