New York's fracking hypocrisy underscores energy illiteracy

New York has issued a moratorium for hydraulic fracturing in the portions of the Marcellus Shale that fall within its borders, but the state is benefiting economically and environmentally from the fracking going on in neighboring Pennsylvania, as NPR reported.

New York City, for example, has rolled out a program, “NYC Clean Heat,” to encourage building owners to switch from heating oil to natural gas. One building owner told NPR that by switching, he expects to reduce his building’s energy costs by 50 percent.

The abundance of natural gas produced by fracking in places like the Marcellus has driven down prices and made those savings possible. The irony, as NPR points out, is that most New Yorkers oppose fracking:

In polls, New York City voters have opposed fracking. “It’s varied anywhere from 1- or 2-point margin of opposition to as much as 14 points opposition over the last year or so,” says Steven Greenberg, a pollster for Siena Research Institute.

Despite consistent opposition to fracking, it appears many New Yorkers have not made a direct connection between fracking and the increasing availability of natural gas in their region. Talk to people on the street and they focus more on the benefits here than the environmental consequences over in Pennsylvania.

“The oil, when it burns, it discolors my house — it’s terrible. You get the smell,” says Kevin Leonard of Pleasantville, N.Y. “Natural gas is much better. … And it’s much cheaper at this point in time.”

The disparity between voters’ views on fracking and their embrace of cheaper heating bills and less pollution from natural gas underscores our broader national illiteracy about energy issues and the tradeoffs they require. For decades, much of our oil and natural gas production was extracted from remote areas of the country — places like West Texas and Alaska. Fracking has not only unleashed huge new reserves, it’s literally brought the drilling rigs closer to home for many Americans.

For years, we could ignore the tradeoffs that energy production required. We jumped in our cars and drove, we flicked on a switch and expected the lights to come on. Energy was made somewhere else, by some esoteric process that we could easily ignore. When a disaster, such as BP's BP +0.23% 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, did draw attention to the costs of production, we embraced unrealistic responses — shut down offshore drilling, switch to renewables.

Residents in places like New York welcome the benefits of fracking’s bounty, yet they have so far refused to acknowledge the tradeoffs. But New Yorkers aren’t alone in in their energy hypocrisy. Earlier this week, news stories touted the lowest gasoline prices in three years. The lower prices made travel this Thanksgiving weekend cheaper for millions motorists. That, too, is a benefit of the fracking boom. Yet how many of those driving to grandma’s house this weekend gave thanks for fracking or our new energy abundance?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorensteffy/2013/11/29/new-yorks-fracking-hypocrisy-underscores-energy-illiteracy/?ss=business%3Aenergy