Doug McLinko is firing back at New York’s fracking ban after watching his Pennsylvania county flourish while neighbors across the state line struggle.
McLinko, an elected commissioner in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, told The Post that hydraulic fracturing has bankrolled a rural renaissance just thirty miles from the economic decay gripping Elmira, New York. The two communities share the same Marcellus Shale deposit, one of the largest natural gas fields in the United States, but have been driven into radically different futures by a single policy divide.
“We’re stringing our own rural broadband, rather than wait for the state or federal government to do it,” McLinko said. “We built a brand new state-of-the-art, $20 million 911 center, a new Sheriff’s center, new veterans center and a $4 million historically accurate copper roof on our courthouse.”
The gulf is stark in the statistics. Towanda, Pennsylvania’s median household income sits at $61,000 while Elmira, New York’s is $43,000, according to the US Census Bureau. Poverty rates hit 13% in Bradford County versus 30% in Chemung County. FBI data puts Towanda’s violent crime rate roughly 60% below the national average; Elmira’s runs 52% above it, with property crime more than double the national rate.
“It’s incredible, what it’s meant to our schools, working families, retired people, you name it,” McLinko continued.
Former Chemung County executive Tom Santulli remembers when the boom almost reached his side. “Our mall was packed with people, our sales taxes were through the roof. It was terrific. The influx of people from Texas and Louisiana. You couldn’t get a hotel room. The airplanes were coming and going,” he told The Post. “We would have reshaped the Southern Tier. I really thought it was going to happen. Even the [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation] was on our side.”
That promise died in 2014 when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo banned fracking statewide, citing environmental concerns over toxic byproducts and risks to groundwater contamination. “It was like a pin in a balloon that Monday morning when I got the phone call,” Santulli said.
The contrast drew sharp political commentary during an October 13 gubernatorial debate, where Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman blasted Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul. “In Pennsylvania, they’re getting jobs… They’re driving brand-new Cadillac Escalades,” he said. “On the New York side of the border, they’re driving around 25-year-old rusted-out pickup trucks — because of your policies.”
Hochul has held the line. “We’re not fracking, we’re not burning coal. We’re not going backwards,” she said in 2024, steering instead toward solar and wind farms that have drawn near-unanimous backlash from rural New Yorkers living near the developments.
McLinko gets regular royalty checks for a slice of land he owns, saying, “It changed my life. I don’t have a lot of land, but it’s been amazing.” Pennsylvania mandates a minimum 12.5% payout to landowners, meaning residents with wells on their property collect anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand dollars monthly. State data shows Bradford County pulls in around $3.9 million annually direct from gas companies and over $6.9 million to local municipalities, separate from private landowner royalties.
The infrastructure gap is equally dramatic. Bradford County now hosts roughly 1,500 active wells, 1,200 miles of gathering lines, around 60 compressor stations and 100 freshwater taps — all absent just across the state line. McLinko noted the county had not raised taxes in over 20 years until last year, and said gas companies have poured hundreds of millions into road improvements with no groundwater contamination issues.
In a final broadside at New York’s leadership, McLinko did not hold back. “It’s been huge in our county. For these clowns up there to ban it is as irresponsible as it gets,” he said. “You’re freaking nuts. Clinically insane.”
Pennsylvania state data shows Bradford County’s high school graduation rates run 15 points higher than Chemung County’s, while overdose deaths in the New York county were a tragic 80% above the national average in 2024.
