Cara Dingus Brook - President, Foundation for Appalachian Ohio guest blogs for EID on the opportunities shale development presents for Appalachian Ohio:

"The extraction of Appalachian Ohio’s natural resources has helped create wealth and prosperity in many parts of our state and nation, yet the region itself has continued to struggle with persistent poverty. Now, new technologies for accessing oil and gas from shale are placing the region at the center of another energy renaissance. As we rise to the challenge of providing the resources needed to power our country, we must also rise to the unprecedented opportunity to extract prosperity and lasting wealth for our region’s citizens and communities.

We can learn a great deal about today’s opportunity from the region’s past. Many Appalachian Ohio communities were created by natural resource extraction. The mining of coal, iron ore and clay produced jobs, attracting people to settle in the region. During these early energy booms, our communities were emerging. They had not yet developed charitable foundations or economic development organizations to retain a portion of the income flowing through their communities for reinvestment in the communities’ well-being. When the income produced by extraction began to dry up, communities lacked resources to prepare for a new future."
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