Commentary CANONSBURG, PA.—Thirty years ago, Jason Capps was a young man with ambition, but when he looked around this town near Pittsburgh, where he grew up, all he saw were opportunities slipping away. The coal mines where his father worked were dying; the glass, steel, and manufacturing industries were on their last legs. In 1987, when Capps graduated from high school, the unemployment rate was at a staggering 12 percent. “My ability to carve out a future here was limited at best, impossible at worst,” he said. “So I left.” Capps, 51, became a chef and traveled the country honing his skills. But then an unexpected rebirth happened here in Western Pennsylvania with the discovery of the Marcellus Shale, an ancient rock bed that offers an abundant source of natural gas. Eventually, Capps moved back to his hometown and, in 2006, he founded Bella Sera—a successful event space resembling a …