Fresh off his 72% reelection victory in New York’s 27th District, Congressman Chris Collins has set to work attempting to deliver on his promises to the voters. One of the biggest challenges he faces is the effort to help turn things around in the Empire State on the energy front. New York, just like Pennsylvania and West Virginia, sits on two major shale oil reserves. But unlike their neighbors to the south, where jobs have multiplied and personal wealth has moved upward, New Yorkers have not been able to benefit from these opportunities. Democrats in charge of the state government, led by Governor Andrew Cuomo, have maintained a “moratorium” on fracking for more than six years now. (In reality this is a ban motivated entirely by liberal New York politics, but Cuomo has national ambitions so he doesn’t like to use the B word.)

Congressman Collins is hoping to finally move the needle.

Fracking has already transformed places like Williston, N.D., Cumberland Township, Pa., and Port Arthur, Texas, from dusty towns to booming economic powerhouses. Unfortunately, no New York towns can say the same. New York has similar energy resources, as it sits atop two large shale formations. However, for reasons varying from overregulation to political calculations, we have yet to tap in to our energy potential. Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to uphold a moratorium on fracking that has been in place in New York since 2008.

The time has come for Gov. Cuomo to open New York to fracking.

As with any practice that harnesses our natural resources, environmental concerns need to be evaluated. But so far, Gov. Cuomo has refused to discuss the future of the moratorium as he hides behind flawed evidence and the continuous and politically motivated delays of his health department tasked with issuing a safety review. Numerous scientific studies have shown that fracking is safe when done correctly and with the proper oversight.

While Gov. Cuomo and downstate New York bureaucrats delay, New York residents, especially Western New Yorkers, lose out on job opportunities, lower energy prices, and lucrative revenue streams. I will continue to pressure Gov. Cuomo to lift the fracking moratorium in New York, and look forward to New York becoming the next state to lead America’s energy resurgence.

There was a time when I would have thought that Chris Collins was just tilting at windmills here. Albany is firmly in the pockets of the anti-energy crowd and Cuomo knows which side his bread is buttered on. But current events may be providing a small sliver of light in terms of a path forward. As we’ve discussed before, Governor Cuomo is still under the impression that he might be a viable challenger for the Democrat nomination either in 2016, or possibly even the next time around if Hillary manages to fail. The public is clearly on the side of more energy jobs and are not voting they way the environmental activists would like on a national level. While he would take a hit at home, lifting the moratorium might look like the best move for Cuomo’s team.

Sadly, we don’t have the votes in the areas where the energy is found to overcome the slug of Democrats in New York City, so “voting the bums” out is still not an option. But if there is a gleam of greed in Cuomo’s eyes in terms of a presidential bid, he might just deliver a moment of opportunity.