Independence Day celebrations were a little sweeter this year for the de pressed communities of New York’s Southern Tier, after the state Department of Environmental Conservation recommended lifting the ban on the hydrofracturing, or “fracking.”

Fracking would allow firms to harvest the trillions of cubic feet of natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation along the New York-Pennsylvania border — bringing potentially thousands of jobs to this economically hard-pressed region.

(Cautious optimism is in order, however, as the preliminary DEC recommendations propose limitations on gas development that may negatively affect landowners’ rights and repeat anti-business practices that have made New York one of the worst states in which to do business.)

In Bradford County, Pa., only miles from New York, the 2009 unemployment rate of 10 percent has been halved because of Marcellus gas development. In towns near Towanda, once one of Pennsylvania’s poorest regions, “help wanted” signs decorate roadside businesses. Wages are rising rapidly.

Even New York firms that service the Pennsylvania gas industry are creating jobs here.

RB Robinson, a small family construction business in Candor, NY, had eight full-time employees in 2009. Today, it provides full- and part-time work for 120 people. Not only are the job numbers rising, but also the work weeks average 60 to 70 hours, pumping more dollars into the local economy and state tax coffers.

Perhaps now discussions can take place on how best to plan for growth in such decaying Southern Tier towns and cities as Binghamton and Elmira.

In Bradford County, the gas firms upgraded and resurfaced hundreds of miles of substandard roads. Inferior water and sewage-treatment plants are destined for improvement.

Deteriorating infrastructure in New York — the result of decades of declining tax revenues and loss of private-sector business — should immediately be reviewed with an eye toward improvement. Where possible, municipalities should coordinate with the gas industry as it installs roads and pipelines to achieve infrastructure improvements at no cost to the taxpayer.

With a stable source of low-cost natural gas, manufacturers will look at New York in a whole new light.

For parts of the state that once hummed with the sounds of goods being “made in New York,” the silence of stagnation and the gradual outmigration of young people might finally be replaced by the sounds of enterprise and opportunity.

The chemical and steel industries are already rebounding in parts of the country that have a stable supply of low-cost natural gas. For example, Nucor Steel, America’s largest steel producer and recycler, is investing $3 billion in a plant and infrastructure in Louisiana.

At a recent conference in Washington, DC, Jeff Braun, Nucor’s environmental-affairs manager, called natural gas produced by fracking a “game changer” for the nation’s steel industry. Nucor Steel employs more than 300 people in Auburn, NY, and it’s the biggest consumer of natural gas in the area. Braun cites “regulatory uncertainty” as a serious concern for firms like his when siting or expanding plants.

Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera recently unveiled legislation that would require diesel-burning public transportation and school buses to be retrofitted to run on compressed natural gas by 2015, in order to save money and mitigate air pollution.

Wouldn’t it be great if that natural gas were produced in New York?

Despite having vast natural-gas resources, New York, the nation’s fourth biggest natural-gas consumer, imports 96 percent of the fuel. New York City accounts for a large portion of that consumption. The potential for a truly sustainable economy made possible by low-cost homegrown energy is enormous.

In 2011, Independence Day has just taken on a whole new meaning.

Karen Moreau heads the Foundation for Land and Liberty. landandlibertyfoundation.org