The fracturing boom is over. Where did all the work go?

Boom and bust

The shale gas “boom” is as short-lived as Cruz’s presidential prospects. However, four years later, during the re-election campaign, Donald Trump used the same script to try to defeat Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.

A campaign The report aired in the state stated that Biden’s “hydraulic fracturing ban” would “kill as many as 600,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.” (Biden cannot ban hydraulic fracturing, except on federal public lands.) At a rally in Latrobe, Trump claimed that hydraulic fracturing created 940,000 jobs in the state.This The actual number There were approximately 26,000 people at the time—this included “hydraulic fracturing-related” jobs that were not directly in the industry.

A kind report The Multi-State Shale Research Partnership found that during the apparent fracturing boom in Pennsylvania and the Midwest (2008-2012), “companies with economic interest in expanding drilling” and their political allies systematically exaggerated the industry The impact on employment.

The American Chamber of Commerce announced in 2012 that shale gas production in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia created more than 300,000 new jobs. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry only counted about 18,000 people.This discrepancy is probably due to the blatant distortion of the Chamber Several controversial industry-funded Pennsylvania State University studies That watch”Expected work,” means expected future jobs. Later, the Chamber of Commerce will modify the 300,000 jobs “created” into 180,000 jobs “support”.

Similarly, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett National Energy Plan 2014 It claims that “more than 240,000 Pennsylvanians are engaged in core and auxiliary work related to the oil and gas industry.” However, the Keystone Research Center pointed out that most Auxiliary work (Like those UPS drivers), which accounted for the majority of the total, predated hydraulic fracturing.

Most importantly, although Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom peaked between 2011 and 2012, its unemployment rate actually rose by nearly one percentage point during this period—8.3%, which is half a percentage point higher than the national average— -Even if the unemployment rate is 46 states. (In Beartown, the former mayor called it the “energy capital of Pennsylvania”. The median household income in 2012 was $33,147, not higher than before the prosperity; the local high poverty rate remained unchanged.)

heavy bomb report A recent release by the Ohio Valley Research Institute details how the promise of hydraulic fracturing boosters for employment and prosperity in the wider Appalachian region has become a mirage. In the 22 Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia counties that produce most of the natural gas in the United States, economic output increased by 60% from 2008 to 2019, but the income from this growth rarely remained in the local communities. The employment growth rate in the region was only 1.6%, compared to 9.9% nationally; its share of the national population dropped by 11%.

These figures show that natural gas drilling has not improved the financial prospects of the shale community. In fact, it may even make things worse.

Continued growth

Breaking the fracturing is the golden goose myth is very important, because it eliminates one of the main reasons for polluting the industry. This”“Economy and Environment” Narrative Means that environmental protection policies will kill jobs.Proponents of renewable energy, partly because they want to rewrite the storyline, also often Exaggerating economic impact They make their own proposals by touting high-paying “green jobs”, and they claim to provide wind or solar energy.