Report - Coal 2.0: Appalachian Fracked Gas Boom Didn't Help That Region's Flailing Economy

[hatrack]

Natural gas production in the Appalachian region of the United States has failed to produce promised increases in jobs and income since the fracking boom began there in the late 2000s, with economic stagnation likely to persist now that output of the fuel has passed its peak, according to a report issued on Tuesday.

The study from the Ohio River Valley Institute, a nonprofit research group, found that gas-producing areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia lost more than 10,000 jobs from 2008 to 2021 and that their personal income growth trailed that of the three states and the U.S. as a whole. Their population dropped by more than 46,000 during the period.

Even though gross domestic product of the 22-county region surged at four times the rate of the states overall from 2008 to 2019, little of that new wealth helped local economies because natural gas investment is mostly made in capital, not labor, and because many of the industry’s workers came from distant areas like Texas or Oklahoma where oil and gas skills were more readily available, the report said.

“GDP, which is often cited as a principal barometer of economic health, failed to produce commensurate gains in local measures of prosperity and well-being, including job, income and population growth,” it said.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23082023/fracking-appalachia-peak-stagnation/

[AllyCat]

1. Figures. Ruined environments, squashed economies

All for the gain of the already rich.

[Think. Again.]

2. Yep....

...and still those W.V. voters don't have a clue how royally Joe Manchin screwed them over by not grabbing his golden opportunity with the Build Back Better and Inflation Reduction Act negotiations to get huge federal funding to make W.V. the absolute leading state in Renewable Energy jobs and commerce.