As the Trump administration aims to bolster fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy expansion, new research shows the oil and gas sector has so far failed to become a\u00a0major jobs creator for heavily fracked areas of northern Appalachia.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the degree that we allocate resources to help develop that industry, we\u2019re diverting those resources from other industries that actually could deliver\u201d more jobs and higher per-capita incomes, said Sean O\u2019Leary, author of the recent report<\/a> from the Ohio River Valley Institute.<\/p>\n The report uses the term \u200b\u201cFrackalachia\u201d to describe 30 top oil- and gas-producing counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. As a\u00a0group, the counties have smaller populations and a\u00a0net loss in the number of jobs compared to 2008, just before Appalachia\u2019s shale-gas boom\u00a0began.<\/p>\n The counties\u2019 growth in per-capita income also has lagged behind the national average, even as their nominal gross domestic product nearly doubled, increasing their share of the country\u2019s GDP by 6%. Basically, comparatively high economic output from the counties did not produce higher-than-average incomes for their residents.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite immense economic growth as measured by GDP, Frackalachia is in a\u00a0position of actually having lost jobs since the beginning of the natural-gas boom,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. In his view, the numbers contradict pro-industry pitches for more oil and gas development.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever else it is, the natural-gas boom is not an engine for economic prosperity,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. He thinks the gas industry is \u200b\u201cstructurally incapable\u201d of delivering lasting growth in jobs and income for the people living in heavily fracked areas. The Frackalachia counties have also seen relatively few jobs from \u200b\u201cdownstream\u201d industries, such as the production of plastics<\/a>, he\u00a0added.<\/p>\n Oil and gas development is \u200b\u201chighly capital-intensive, but not very labor-intensive,\u201d O\u2019Leary explained. Most earnings go to shareholders, investors, and suppliers based far from where fossil fuels are extracted, so only a\u00a0small share of project income stays in the community to stimulate more economic activity.<\/p>\n Completed wells don\u2019t need many permanent employees, O\u2019Leary said. And many people who work in drilling and fracking come from outside the local\u00a0area.<\/p>\n Canary Media\u2019s review of data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is consistent with that observation. From 2012 through 2022, the agency issued annual reports<\/a> about the economic impact of the state\u2019s oil and gas industry, including data for both \u200b\u201ccore\u201d jobs and \u200b\u201cancillary\u201d industries, which support oil and gas development.<\/p>\n More than half<\/a> of the new hires for the core industry jobs in 2021 came from outside Ohio, according to the state data. Even in ancillary industries, nearly four-tenths of new hires were from other states.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the state holds clean energy companies to higher standards when it comes to sourcing local labor. Solar developers who want to qualify for certain property tax relief<\/a> must provide at least 70%<\/a> of a\u00a0project\u2019s jobs to Ohio residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Trump administration aims to bolster fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy expansion, new research…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-70385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}