Congressman Steve Stivers, 15th District of Ohio:

"The untapped resources in Ohio’s Utica Shale are bringing huge opportunities, including job creation for Ohioans, and helping us move forward towards energy security. We cannot continue to rely on other nations—who do not have our country’s best interests in mind—for our energy supply here at home. We must recognize that we need American energy to solve America’s energy problem. We need to take advantage of the abundant natural resources, like the shale reserves in Ohio and across the rest of the country, which will help us to reduce our dependency on foreign energy.

Shale development will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs—including in the state of Ohio. A report issued in September 2011 by Kleinhenz & Associates on Ohio’s oil and natural gas industry indicates that “More than 204,000 jobs could be created or supported by 2015 due to exploration, leasing, drilling and connector pipeline construction for the Utica Shale reserve.”  If we take advantage of our shale reserves we will make great progress towards achieving both goals. Using our own natural resources to supply our energy needs and putting our own American workers on the job to harvest those natural resources will set us on the right path towards both a more independent energy future, and a stronger economy.

The safest practices are best determined by sound science and numbers-based evidence. With so much at stake for job creation and energy security, it is critical we make reasoned, science-based decisions about how to manage the practices and processes involved in energy extraction, including hydraulic fracturing. They say there is safety in numbers, and in this case, I could not agree more."

READ THE REST FROM REP STIVERS: http://www.eidohio.org/shale-development-a-gateway-to-americas-ener...