Small Business Comments on Marcellus Shale Public Hearing

“Maryland has been unable to utilize our natural gas resource for far too long already, and this report further delays drilling. It stifles our ability to create jobs and extends our dependency on foreign energy sources,” said NFIB/MD state director Jessica Cooper. “There are areas of Maryland that are starved for the type of economic development that safe fracking could provide.”

While fracking has resulted in an economic boom for other states, such as neighboring Pennsylvania, where it has created jobs and empowered small business, Maryland will not be the beneficiary of fracking anytime soon if the findings of the report are accepted. 

“The report, unfortunately over regulates opportunities for economic growth and job creation in Western Maryland and puts us at a competitive disadvantage with other states in the Marcellus Shale,” continued Cooper. “We are optimistic that Governor Elect Hogan will revisit this issue and see the potential for economic success and energy cost reduction.”

During the campaign, then-candidate Hogan stated that fracking was “critical to our state economy.” It remains to be seen if once in office, he will take on this controversial issue that he once admitted had been “studied to death.”