Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino touted the benefits of hydrofracking during a series of stops in the Southern Tier yesterday. One of the stops was at a Vestal company that does roadwork for oil companies just across the border in Pennsylvania.
Astorino visited the Binghamton-area company Vestal Asphalt and linked upstate New York's declining population with a lack of jobs and high taxes. He pointed to fracking as a way to reverse that trend and transform the Southern Tier.
“Binghamton had the opportunity and they still have the opportunity to be the Dallas of New York. The center for energy production,” says Astorino.
The anti-fracking group Citizen Action responded to that message by agreeing with Astorino, but focusing on a different outcome. They say fracking would make Binghamton the Dallas of New York by bringing in legions of out-of-state workers and rampant air pollution.
Astorino claims allowing natural gas exploration in the state could create twenty-five to fifty thousand jobs.
“So we can do it. We should do it. We will do it when I become governor,” says Astorino.
Astorino says, if elected, his administration would quickly issue rules to bring fracking to New York state.