Some states unprepared for shale energy boom

USA Today reports:

Expansive underground gas and oil fields being tapped in the nation's industrial heartland have brought hopes of prosperity and riches to a region that has been 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. For the region, the dream is even grander: that cheap energy will make manufacturing competitive again and restore industrial might that's been slipping away for generations.

But the new boom has the states struggling to figure out how to tax and regulate the drilling so the new-found wealth isn't just shipped via pipeline to Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

An article well worth your time.