You could be forgiven for thinking the development of the Marcellus and Utica shales sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie. The setup is pretty irresistible: a down-on-its-luck region in desperate need of new industry combined with a nation requiring more energy supplies and economic growth. Just as it seems that all hope is lost, an industry booms in the down-on-its-luck region and creates new jobs that are helping to revitalize not just the region, but the country, all while changing the global energy landscape.

And yet, that is what happened in the past decade in the Appalachian Basin. The Marcellus and Utica shales have turned around the local economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia by bringing in new jobs and new workers, many of whom are returning to their home states after having to leave to find work in other states. The development of these plays, as well as other shales around the country, is helping to transform the U.S. from an energy importer to an energy exporter.

According to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, Pennsylvania currently stands as the second-largest generator of electricity and producer of natural gas in the country. In addition, the state is the 19th largest producer of crude oil. This production has helped Pennsylvania add more than 43,000 new jobs over the last three years.

The notion that the U.S. could once again be an energy superpower was an absurd one at the start of this century. Less than ten years ago the conversation surrounding U.S. energy wasn’t about self-sufficiency, but about how many of our ideals we would have to relinquish to maintain our lifestyles. We were expecting to make a deal with a devil of some sort whether they were Venezuelan, Russian or Middle Eastern, that had the potential to pose risks to national security while also further mortgaging our economic future.

Compare that to the current situation: Not only is the U.S. producing vast amounts of natural gas from shale plays—we’re about to export it to both free trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA countries; not only are we producing so much crude that we are backing out imports, but there are discussions in Washington to decide if we could actually export crude.

During the latter stages of Bill Clinton’s presidency, many pundits were discussing whether the U.S. had entered a post-industrial economy based not on the production of goods and services, but brands, entertainment and logistics. Now U.S. companies are not only restarting domestically located factories, but foreign companies are building new manufacturing plants in the U.S. Even with the higher wages that American workers make, it is more economic for manufacturing plants to be close to the source of petrochemical production.

The Marcellus and Utica shales are also close to demand centers in the Northeast—including major cities like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston and the rest of the New England states—as well as the emerging markets in the Southeast.

There are pipelines in place that were originally designed to move oil and gas from the Gulf Coast to some of these demand centers that are now being rerouted to account for the new reality in the gas industry. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that natural gas pipeline systems are being renovated to allow bidirectional flow of up to 8.3 billion cubic feet per day out of the Northeast.

“Flows on ANR Pipeline, Texas Eastern Transmission, Transcontinental Pipeline, Iroquois Gas Pipeline, Rockies Express Pipeline and Tennessee Gas Pipeline accounted for 60% of flows to the Northeast in 2013,” the EIA said in a Dec. 2 update. “Flows on these pipelines in 2013 were between 21% and 84% below 2008 levels, with the largest percentage decline occurring on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline. In 2014, the Tennessee Gas Pipeline and the Texas Eastern Transmission began flowing gas both ways between states along the Northeast and Southeast region borders.”

Long-term, the two most attractive areas for growth are the petrochemical and manufacturing markets and the New York, Southeast and New England utility markets. The Southeast is fast growing in terms of population and many of its coal-fired plants are being replaced or converted to natural gas.

Arguably more important are the New York and New England markets, which have huge premiums and rely a great deal on heating oil. There are only two pipelines running into New England that have access to Marcellus gas: the Algonquin and Tennessee pipelines. There is additional capacity for both Canadian gas and LNG imports, but neither is as economically competitive with gas from the Appalachian, so both options are unattractive for generators during capacity constraints.

In 2013, natural gas represented 46% of electric generation in New England and is expected to increase to 55% by 2022. This past winter gave a real indication to how much increased transportation capacity is needed in these markets.

As temperatures got extremely cold, spot prices spiked around the country, moving from around $3 to $4 per million Btu (MMBtu) to double digits. The New York and New England markets saw the largest increases as prices approached $100/MMBtu primarily due to the limited access routes.

In addition, Morningstar recently released a report that stated that these huge spikes were a result of New York bidding up prices in order to direct volumes to the city. Although this won’t be as much of an issue this year with the TETCO and Rockaway Lateral projects, New England remains constrained as the region has traditionally used coal and heating oil, which both have larger greenhouse gas emissions and in the case of heating oil are more expensive. Gas is generally economically on par with coal since the shale gale, but the lack of capacity into New England saw gas spot prices substantially higher.

Normally this would be solved by converting coal plants to gas plants and building some new pipelines. But New England isn’t quite that easy to convert to gas because buying and dispensing heating oil and coal is much different than buying gas.

The biggest change for utilities is the need to make long-term purchasing agreements in order to support the construction of new pipelines. New England utilities aren’t allowed to recover long-term firm transportation charges in their rates. This means that the traditional contracts used by midstream operators are difficult to implement as there is no guarantee that costs can be recovered without a 10- to 20-year firm commitment from local distribution companies.

In an effort to meet New England gas demand, an alliance was formed between Iroquois Gas Transmission System LP and Spectra Energy and Northeast Utilities’ Access Northeast Project. The alliance will aim to provide the region with additional access to Appalachian gas supplies.

During the project’s open season, shippers will be able to select from multiple receipt point options along the Algonquin pipeline system, including the Iroquois pipeline system at Wright, N.Y. Additionally, shippers will have the opportunity to choose from Algonquin’s receipt points with other existing interconnecting pipelines: Texas Eastern; Millennium; Tennessee Gas Pipeline; Columbia Gas; Transco; and future connections like the PennEast Project that will connect directly to Marcellus shale production in northeast Pennsylvania. Spectra Energy recently became a partner in the development of the PennEast Pipeline.

In many ways, the full-fledged return of the oil and gas industries to the Appalachian Basin is similar to a homecoming that happened in the same region this summer: the return of LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers. After famously “taking his talents to South Beach” and winning two NBA titles with the Miami Heat, James decided to come back to play for the team he’d started his career with as a teenager.

This return guarantees a certain level of success: The Cavaliers will almost certainly return to the playoffs for the first time since James left for Miami, but a lot of work is still to be done to make them title contenders. The same holds true for the development of the Marcellus and Utica shales: The region is guaranteed a certain level of success, but to truly become a world-class production center more infrastructure expansion will be necessary in the coming years.