Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are on the cusp of a very real economic boom. That is, if the politicians don't screw it up.
I'm referring to the Marcellus gas field that sits beneath these three states. It is the second largest deposit of natural gas on the planet and can provide us with energy for the next 200 years.
I learned a lot about it from a book called ''The Truth about Hydrofracking and the next great American boom'' written by a man named Greg Kozera, an environmentalist with more than 35 years experience in the natural gas and oil industry. In it, I learned that we were negotiating with Russia and Iran in the mid-1980s as suppliers, as we were looking at a looming natural gas shortage. We were destined to be at the mercy of two very unfriendly countries.
Marcellus changed all that.
I don't think one can overstate the economic impact that this will have on the region. The wealth about to be created in this area and the jobs-creating ripple effect will be on a scale that we have yet to grasp.
Almost a billion dollars has already been pumped into our local economy by the building of the new V&M Star plant, and this is just the beginning. This new wealth is percolating through our cities and towns.
The first signs of the coming boom will be increased traffic. If you watch, you will notice that it is already occurring. You will also notice the increased activity at our stores and restaurants.
The future holds great promise for our country, and in particular our area, but we must guard against those who want to stop this progress. People who fancy themselves as protectors of the environment propose roadblocks to stop us from accessing this resource. They use people's lack of knowledge about drilling and fracking to create fear that the environment will be damaged.
They even have a movie in which someone in Dimock, Pa., is lighting gas coming from a water faucet. What they don't tell you is that this particular area has so much methane gas near the surface that kids used to drill holes in the pond ice and light it to keep warm while skating.
I learned that the pipe casings that bring the gas to the surface have as much as four layers of steel separated by three layers of cement, and the shaft that collects the gas is separated by about a mile and a half of solid rock from our water supply. Most people aren't aware that we have been fracking wells for more than 45 years, and 90 percent of our gas comes from wells that have been fracked.
There are literally a couple of million fracked wells in our country and not a single incident of water contamination attributed to them.
The opponents also try to instill fear by calling the fracking fluid toxic, though 99 percent is plain water and .5 percent is sand. The last .5 percent is a variety of chemicals that you would find in your house, and yes, toxic if you ate or drank enough.
You should note though that trucks hauling this fracking water do not carry placards as trucks that carry toxic chemicals must. And even this objection is about to be removed as just the other night on one of the cable networks, one of the hosts drank a new fracking fluid that is so safe as to be edible.
Within the group of people opposing fracking, there are certainly people who do so honestly, but they are being lied to and led by so-called ''progressive'' politicians, who are anything but. These politicians are leftists who continually oppose corporations and the free market system.
If you take the time to review their activities you will find a consistent history of fighting against capitalism. If they had their way we all would be standing in front of our assigned wind powered farming communes waiting for the bus ride to our jobs at the solar panel factory.
Don't let them scare you into giving up on assuring your children a modern and high standard of living.
Moadus is a Girard resident. Email him at editorial@tribtoday.com.