This is the best job I've ever had

Unprepared for shale boom: N.Y., Pa. have no severance tax on oil, gas
Dennis Cauchon
Gannett--Star Gazette

CANONSBURG, Pa. -- Aaron Dinnin's last job was as a prison guard. Before that, he was a roofer. Today, the 33-year-old West Virginian works in a shale gas field near his home and earns more money than ever before. "This is the best job I've ever had," he says.

Expansive underground gas and oil fields being tapped in the nation's industrial heartland have brought hopes of prosperity and riches to a region in economic decay for a half-century.

The energy find appears richest in formations under many of the poorest parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New York and perhaps other adjacent states.

For the nation, a huge energy source near where tens of millions of Americans live is a once-in-a-lifetime development. More...