This week President Obama will swing through upstate New York to push his “grand bargain” for the middle class. The question is: Will he embarrass Gov. Cuomo?
We don’t mean deliberately. But in his speeches calling for a new deal for America’s middle class, Obama has touted the boom in US natural-gas production — the result of the rapid spread of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to tap gas reserves.
Today, says Obama, “we produce more natural gas than any country on earth.” Indeed, new Energy Information Administration figures show gas reserves soaring 10 percent from 2010 to 2011 alone, shattering records. Obama also notes how he’s pushed to accelerate America’s “natural-gas revolution,” though he blames Republicans for blocking him.
Give the president credit: He obviously recognizes the economic benefits of fracking. And if anyone could use the jobs and revenue that fracking brings, it’s the people of upstate New York.
The president’s trip will take him to Buffalo, Binghamton, Syracuse and other parts of upstate. These areas have hemorrhaged jobs for years. Today, large swaths are economic basket cases. Upstate job growth over the past year, 0.9 percent, was less than half the national rate, 2.1 percent. Counties such as Steuben and Chemung are stuck with unemployment rates of more than 8 percent; St. Lawrence, Oswego and Lawrence top 9 percent.
The governor knows how bleak the situation is for upstaters. Recently, he defined it as the place “where the problem is.” Yet Cuomo continues to keep upstaters out of fracking, even as border towns in neighboring Pennsylvania are benefiting from the natural-gas boom the president has been bragging about and touting (rightly) as a huge benefit for the middle class.
We’re with President Obama on this one. And we’ll be giving his remarks a close read to see whether he sticks to his line about natural gas — or takes them out to spare the feelings of his fellow Democrat and host, Andrew Cuomo.