Giving Compass' Take:
- Heather Close reports on how fracking in Appalachia has failed to deliver jobs and economic opportunity to northern Appalachian states.
- How are common narratives about the supposed benefits of fracking proven to be false by this report? How can donors and funders support clean energy job growth across the country?
- Learn more about key climate justice issues and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on climate justice in your area.
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Residents in heavily fracked northern Appalachian states haven't seen the job creation gains oil and gas companies promised, according to a new research report from the Ohio River Valley Institute. "The report uses the term 'Frackalachia' to describe 30 top oil- and gas-producing counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia," reports Kathiann M. Kowalski of Canary Media.
Despite the region's surging output, which "increased their share of the country’s gross domestic product by 6%" over the course of 15 years, Kowalski writes, Appalachia residents living near natural shale-gas fracking sites did not benefit from "higher-than-average incomes. . . . [The area's] income growth was 25% below that of the nation as a whole."
Part of the dilemma for communities with shale deposits is that extraction doesn't require a constant workforce, but it does require financial backing and expensive machinery. Kowalski reports, "Most earnings go to shareholders, investors, and suppliers based far from where fossil fuels are extracted, so only a small share of project income stays in the community to stimulate more economic activity."
Transferring employees into a region with extraction is another reason oil and gas companies don't generate jobs for residents. "From 2012 through 2022, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services issued annual reports about the economic impact of the state’s oil and gas industry, including data for 'core' jobs," Kowalski adds. "More than half of the new hires for the core industry jobs in 2021 came from outside Ohio, according to the state data."
When actual employment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was compared to those predicted by the fossil fuel industry, the number of new jobs the industry created in the region fell short. Kowalski writes, "The agency numbers are also far lower than the 79,000 direct and 375,000 total jobs the American Petroleum Institute cited in a 2021 report based on data from 2019."
Read the full article about fracking in Appalachia by Heather Close at The Rural Blog.