Definitive "fracking jobs" analysis

Fracking opponents want you to believe that gas drilling won't help Upsate's dying economy.  CNY blogger Unlikely Hospitalist has researched the economic benefits of hydrofracking currently being enjoyed by our neighbors in Pennsylvania.   The data is overwhelming.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry published a report that showed a nearly 1300% increase in core Marcellus industry jobs in the Northern Tier counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wyoming since 2008." That nearly 48,000 people have been hired in the last year by industries related to drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, and 71% of those people were Pennsylvania residents".

This report was good news to everyone but the organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing...

The Finger Lakes'  "organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing" gang dominates the conversation in every venue.  For instance, this Saturday's Frackingstock event at Ithaca College:

The Epic No Frack Event will take place from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the Whalen Center, Ford Hall and Campus Center. A number of speakers will discuss hydraulic fracturing, including Sandra Steingraber, Ithaca College professor and author of "Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis." Other speakers include an EPA whistleblower and several filmmakers.

"Fracking is the biggest threat to environmental health in this area of upstate New York that I've ever come across in 20 years of looking at public health threats," Steingraber said. "Happily, because we have a temporary moratorium here, New York is alone in kind of pushing the pause button. So we have some time to ask ourselves whether this is something that we want to permit or prohibit."

We note that Professor Steingraber already has a job.  She and her accomplices are working overtime to make sure nobody else does.  

We assume that the fossil-fuel-opposing celebrants at Saturday's festivities will be be walking up the hill to Ithaca College, where they will then toss their iPhones and laptops into the recycling bin.