From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/resource-curse-why-economic-boom-fracking-promises-will-be-bust-most-people-hard
Evidence suggests that counties where drilling occurs will be in worse shape economically down the road.
By Tara Lohan
March 6, 2013
Drillers hit the country’s first oil jackpot in Pennsylvania in 1859. Towns like Titusville and Pithole grew from a few hundred to more than 10,000 nearly overnight. But with the boom, inevitably came the bust. And it’s a history that may repeat itself in the same region soon.
Eastern states like Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia sit atop the Marcellus Shale. High-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, often referred to as “fracking,” has put a bull’s-eye on the region by companies interested in drilling for gas tucked deep into the shale formations.
There’s been controversy over how much havoc fracking will wreak on the environment, with reports of air pollution, water contamination and other abuses from many living near drilling sites. Investigations continue to assess the impacts on human health and the environment.
But what has received less scrutiny are the economic promises made by gas companies and parroted in the media. The question is often posed whether the environmental risks outweigh the economic gains, but the “gains” themselves are far from a given. A report out of Cornell University titled, “A Comprehensive Economic Impact Analysis of Natural Gas Extraction in the Marcellus Shale,” by Susan Christopherson and Ned Rightor found, “The assertion that shale gas drilling will have positive consequences for both New York and Pennsylvania’s economies is based on limited evidence.”
When it comes to long-term economic development, there’s ample evidence to suggest that counties where drilling occurs will be in worse shape down the road, and that even during the drilling and producing phases, there will be a few winners and likely a whole lot of losers, especially among lower-income individuals. Furthermore, the areas targeted for drilling are often the ones already struggling economically, which means less wealthy individuals and communities may become further impoverished.
Christopherson, a professor in Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning, has been studying the economic impacts of fracking in the Marcellus for years. “If those places were rich we wouldn’t be asking these questions because they wouldn’t want it,” she said.
Continue reading at: http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/resource-curse-why-economic-boom-fracking-promises-will-be-bust-most-people-hard
