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modrepub

(3,586 posts)
Tue Oct 1, 2024, 02:38 PM Oct 1

Fracking in Pennsylvania hasn't gone as well as some may think

Twenty years after the state's first shale gas well was drilled, jobs comprise less than 1% of the workforce, residents fear health impacts and environmental damage continues.

One of the first job creation reports painted a rosy picture. Published in 2010 by Penn State University and paid for by the industry, it predicted fracking the Marcellus Shale formation would support 200,000 jobs by 2020. Six years later, another Penn State study with different authors reported about 26,000 direct jobs in the industry, half of which were filled by out-of-state residents.

Today, that number is even smaller. In March of 2024, the state reported 16,831 direct jobs in the industry, less than one half of 1% of all jobs.


Former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Dave Hess, who writes the Pennsylvania Environmental Daily newsletter, pours over the well inspection reports issued by the DEP.

“What I see is the issue of polluted water supplies, of people being impacted by the air pollution around these facilities, people looking out their bedroom windows and 500 feet [away] is a flare shooting 25 feet up in the air, burning off excess natural gas,” said Hess. “All those issues are still there.”

Hess raised alarms in a recent post that listed, in the course of one week in September, 62 notices of violations of conventional wells and seven for fracked wells, bringing the total year-to-date violations to 721 for fracked shale gas wells, and a whopping 5,857 violations for the more shallow conventional wells. The state has had conventional wells, which don’t use fracking to tap the reserves, for more than 100 years. While there are a lot more conventional wells, they do not produce nearly as much oil and gas as the deeper fracked wells.


Article: https://whyy.org/articles/fracking-pennsylvania-shale-gas-workforce-health-environmental-damage/

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Fracking in Pennsylvania hasn't gone as well as some may think (Original Post) modrepub Oct 1 OP
A tiny number of greedy freaks truly profit from fracking and the effects are horrible. Dave Bowman Oct 1 #1
The frac workers gab13by13 Oct 1 #2
It depends Wiz Imp Oct 1 #3
To clarify further Wiz Imp Oct 1 #4

Dave Bowman

(3,358 posts)
1. A tiny number of greedy freaks truly profit from fracking and the effects are horrible.
Tue Oct 1, 2024, 02:43 PM
Oct 1

Greed is an addiction more devastating to society than any hard drugs out there.

gab13by13

(24,302 posts)
2. The frac workers
Tue Oct 1, 2024, 02:45 PM
Oct 1

Drive white pickup trucks with Texas and Oklahoma license plates. Are they counted as Pa workers?

Wiz Imp

(894 posts)
3. It depends
Tue Oct 1, 2024, 03:33 PM
Oct 1

It depends on how the employing company reports them for unemployment insurance purposes. The reporting rules can be vague allowing some companies to report some workers to whichever state gives them the best tax advantage. Having worked for the state of PA, I can confirm some are definitely reported to PA and thus counted in the PA numbers. Others are likely reported in their home state. Those would be counted only in that home states numbers.

Wiz Imp

(894 posts)
4. To clarify further
Tue Oct 1, 2024, 04:45 PM
Oct 1

For those TX/OK workers who were legitimately being counted in PA job totals, the Fracking industry touted those as jobs created by Marcellus Shale drilling in PA. The problem with that is that a large portion of those jobs were filled by out-of-state workers (largely from TX & OK as you suggested but from other states as well). Many/most of these workers went back home after their initial job was done (could be 6-12 months) so in the end, very few jobs were really created for Pennsylvanians. The actual number of jobs created for PA residents could have been as low as just several hundred. Even if you go with the highest estimate, the number was likely in the low thousands (well under 10,000, and almost certainly even under 5,000). The supposed economic boon this was to create simply didn't happen. The only people who made out were the people who owned the land where they could do the drilling - those people made out like bandits - but it didn't significantly help the greater communities or the state as a whole.

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