The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

In his Wednesday press conference, Eric Massa mentioned T. Boone Pickens' energy plan. Pickens' plan is very simple: replace natural gas power generation with wind power, and use that natural gas to power vehicles. The goal is to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, using a strategy that can be implemented in 10 years or less.

In the recent past, the Southern Tier's role in the Pickens Plan would have been wind power, even though this area is a relatively poor location for turbines. However, as the Corning Leader recently reported, the Southern Tier sits upon a formation called the Marcellus Shale, a natural formation containing up to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Using recently invented extraction techniques, some geologists believe up to 50 trillion cubic feet could be extracted from the Marcellus Shale, a volume of gas that corresponds to two years of total US production.

Natural gas is an excellent transitional fuel. We have pipelines to distribute it, we know how to make cars burn it, and it burns relatively cleanly. Natural gas is also about half as expensive as fuel oil for winter heating. The Southern Tier might see an economic shot in the arm from natural gas, and it will be interesting to see if it becomes an issue in the campaign.