Tuesday Night Energy Links

1. Mark Green at the Energy Tomorrow blog points to the video above about the resurgence of jobs, hope and opportunity that has come recently to the Ohio steeltown of Lorain, thanks to the shale/hydraulic fracturing revolution. 2. The shale "gold rush-like" revolution is spreading prosperity all over the country and bringing jobs and production to other states like Pennsylvania and Texas, based on this report from Plastics News:"The [shale] discoveries have prompted several firms — including Dow Chemical Co. and Shell Oil — to announce plans to build new North American ethylene crackers, with Shell making the almost-unheard-of decision to place its new cracker in western Pennsylvania, near the gas-rich Marcellus Shale. Other companies, including Chevron Phillips Chemical and Formosa Plastics, have announced plans to increase their North American polyethylene output as a result of the shale gas wave.“It’s like the gold rush,” Dow executive Mauro Gregorio said of the shale boom. “The discovery of shale gas is one of the most important events in the U.S. in a long time.  It will be a winner for North America as a region,” added Gregorio, commercial vice president for Dow’s Performance Plastics unit in North America. Dow officials confirmed April 19 that their new ethylene cracker will be built at the company’s massive site in Freeport, Texas. The cracker is expected to open in 2017 and will have annual production of 3.3 billion pounds.Shale discoveries “have given North America really inexpensive access to raw materials,” said PolyOne Chairman, President and CEO Stephen Newlin. “It’s made us more competitive."3. And of course North Dakota leads the country in shale-related prosperity, with the lowest state jobless rate at 3% for March, and the highest growth in state per-capita personal income growth since 2000 at 78.7%, more than twice the national average of 37.4%.  An IBD editorial suggests that North Dakota's oil boom should inspire our federal energy policy, and they ask us to "Imagine the impact at the national level if Washington stopped blocking energy development."