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boom and bust
The shale gas “explosion” was as short-lived as Cruz’s presidential aspirations. But Donald Trump, running for reelection four years later, used the same scenario to try out the top Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania, Joe Biden.
A campaign ad A news outlet in the state said Biden’s “fracking ban” would “kill 600,000 Pennsylvania jobs.” (Biden cannot ban fracking outside of federal public lands.) At a rally in Latrobe, Trump claimed that fracking created 940,000 jobs in the state. real number it was close to 26,000 at the time, and that includes “breaking-related” jobs that aren’t directly in the industry.
one statement A study by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative found that during the time span of the apparent fracking boom in Pennsylvania and the Midwest (from 2008 to 2012), “firms with an economic interest in drilling expansion” and their political allies systematically exaggerated. impact of the industry on employment.
In 2012, the US Chamber of Commerce announced that shale gas production in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia created more than 300,000 new jobs. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry was only about 18,000. The inconsistency probably arose from the Chamber’s flagrant misrepresentation. Penn State study funded by several controversial industries looked at that”anticipated jobs” means expected future jobs. The Chamber then reduced the “created” 300,000 jobs to 180,000 “supported” jobs.
Similarly, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett 2014 State Energy Plan He claimed that “more than 240,000 Pennsylvanians work in basic and side jobs related to the oil and gas industry.” However, the Keystone Research Center side jobs It’s the old breakup (like that of UPS drives) that makes up the bulk of the total.
COLIN JEROLMACK
As a result, although Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom peaked between 2011 and 2012, the unemployment rate rose by almost a full percentage point over that time – and at 8.3%, it was half a percentage point above the national average – even as unemployment fell. 46 states. (In Billtown, where the former mayor called it the “Energy Capital of Pennsylvania,” the 2012 median household income of $33,147 was no higher than it was before the boom; the high local poverty rate remained unchanged.)
a bomb statement Recently revealed by the Ohio River Valley Institute, he detailed how the boosters’ promises of jobs and prosperity for the wider Appalachia region were a mirage. In 22 counties of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, which produce most of America’s natural gas, economic output increased 60% from 2008 to 2019, but little of the revenue from that growth remained in local communities. The region saw employment growth of only 1.6% compared to 9.9% nationally; its share in the country’s population decreased by 11%.
These figures show that gas drilling does not improve the financial outlook of shale communities. In fact, it may have made things worse.
Sustainable growth
It is important to debunk the myth that fracking is a golden goose because it removes one of the primary justifications for a polluting industry. “economy versus environment” narrative means eco-friendly policies are killing jobs. Proponents of renewable energy, probably driven in part by the desire to rewrite this story, likewise frequently overestimate the economic impact touting high-paying “green jobs” that they claim will come with wind or solar energy, they start off with their own recommendations.
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