New study: Frac’ing is a Big Fat Fail; Appalachia’s frac boom failed to deliver on promises of local jobs and benefits. Of course it did, frac’ers and their enablers knew it would; frac’ing survives on conning investors, massive debt and gagging the harmed. Locals get: health harms; toxic homes, schools, water, air and land; frac’d authorities and courts; massive stress and sleepless noisy stadium light-filled nights; damaged roads and other infrastructure; more women and children raped; more STDs; lies and useless commitments from companies and lobby groups; fraud from experts and regulators; mega $Billions in clean-up.

This study reveals a frac industry nightmare that companies, politicians and regulators have worked for years (decades in Alberta) to keep secret.

Appalachia’s fracking boom has done little for local economies: Study, “There has been no business case for fracking.” by Kristina Marusic, Feb 10, 2021, Environmental Health News

Appalachia’s fracking boom has failed to deliver on promises of jobs and benefits to local economies, according to a new study.

The study, published today by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a nonprofit think tank, revealed that while economic output in Appalachian fracking counties grew by 60 percent from 2008-2019, the counties’ share of the nation’s personal income, jobs, and population levels all declined. The analysis concluded that about 90 percent of the wealth created from shale gas extraction leaves local communities.

The study looked at the 22 counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia that produce more than 90 percent of the region’s natural gas. In 2008, those counties were responsible for $2.46 of every $1,000 of national economic output. By 2019, the counties were generating $3.31 of every $1,000 generated nationally—an increase more than triple the rate of national growth. But over the same period, those counties’ share of the nation’s personal income fell by 6.3 percent, their share of jobs fell by 7.5 percent, and their share of the nation’s population fell by 9.7 percent.

“This report documents that many Marcellus and Utica region fracking gas counties typically have lost both population and jobs from 2008 to 2019,” John Hanger, former Pennsylvania secretary of Environmental Protection and policy director to Governor Tom Wolf, said in a statement. “This report explodes in a fireball of numbers the claims that the gas industry would bring prosperity to Pennsylvania, Ohio or West Virginia. These are stubborn facts that indicate gas drilling has done the opposite in most of the top drilling counties.”

Among the three states the report looked at, Pennsylvania’s showed the best prosperity measures: GDP growth in Pennsylvanian fracking counties was two and a half times as high as the national level and four times as high as the state’s. Personal income growth was slightly lower than the national average, but slightly better than the state average.

But jobs growth in Pennsylvania’s fracking counties was less than half the national rate and about the same as the state as a whole. I’ll never understand why people fall for the job con, greed perhaps, or sadly, desperation. Drillers and frac’ers bring their own crews, camps, cleaners and cooks, often from out of state/province. My community gained one nasty job – hauling toxic waste – from Encana’s thousands of merciless fracs.

Some Pennsylvania counties performed better than others—Washington County fared the best, with a personal income growth rate that slightly exceeded national growth, and job growth equal to the national rate. Tioga and Wyoming counties also exceeded the state average, but not the national average for personal income growth. But five of the other seven Pennsylvania counties either gained very few jobs or experienced a loss.

Negative cash flows and health harms

According to the Ohio River Valley Institute’s analysis, only about 10 percent of the wealth created from shale gas extraction stays local. But despite 90 percent of that wealth leaving the region, oil and gas companies have also struggled to stay afloat: More than 250 oil and gas producers have filed for bankruptcy since 2015, and the industry shed more than 100,000 jobs in 2020 alone.

The process of extracting oil and natural gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressure is expensive and many fracking companies go into a tremendous amount of debt getting started. Due to oversupply and consistently low prices for natural gas over the last 10 years, many have yet to pay those debts back. And many never will, thanks to frac-happy enabling courts.

“These companies are producing gas, but they still haven’t figured out how to make this profitable business—they’ve had negative cash flows year in and year out,” Kathy Kipple, a financial analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and instructor at Bard College, said during a recent Ohio River Valley Institute forum.

“There has been no business case for fracking.”

Meanwhile, evidence that fracking harms communities nearby continues to mount. As of August 2020, there were 2,015 studies indicating harm or potential harm from fracking, according to a literature review conducted by the health advocacy groups Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York. The health impacts range from headaches, nosebleeds, and asthma exacerbations to anxiety, depression and increased risk of birth defects and premature births.

Hanger said during the same forum that policymakers have had blind spots when it comes to the oil and gas industry.

“This is a story I’ve heard over and over in my 30 years of being involved with policy-making—it starts with good people who are desperate for economic development, very well intentioned, and looking to create jobs,” he said. “But unfortunately that kind of motivated thinking often ignores stubborn facts.”

The death of the petrochemical dream?

A few years into the fracking boom, once it became clear that it would be difficult to turn a profit through natural gas extraction, companies began looking for ways to salvage their investments.

Ethane, a byproduct of fracking, is used to manufacture plastics, so many oil and gas companies looked to building plastics manufacturing plants that would create new demand for ethane.

Gas extracted from Appalachia is particularly high in ethane, so the dream of an Appalachian petrochemical hub emerged, with at least five companies proposing to build petrochemical facilities, underground storage hubs, and hundreds of miles of pipelines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Each site was estimated to create demand for ethane from 1,000 new fracked wells each year.

In 2017, a report from the American Chemistry Council projected that by 2025, this Appalachian petrochemical buildout would create over 100,000 jobs—roughly 25,000 directly employed by these and other plastic manufacturing facilities and an additional 75,000 indirect jobs like contracted delivery drivers, construction workers, and retail workers. It also projected $500 million in state and local tax revenues from the industry.

But now those plans are falling apart.

Of the proposed projects, only one is actually underway: The Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, about 33 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. That facility was supposed to be operational by 2020, but construction was slowed due to COVID-19 and is still in process. The rest of those projects are on hold indefinitely.

Two major things changed shortly after the American Chemistry Council published its 2017 report: In 2018, China stopped taking U.S. plastic to recycle, and a powerful group of companies that sell products in plastic packaging, including Nestle, Unilever, and Colgate-Palmolive, announced plans to drastically cut their use of virgin plastics by 2025 (a pledge that has since been formalized through the U.S. Plastics Pact). And is way too late for too many species, thanks to the frac con and its enablers.

“Those two things were a huge stop,” Anne Keller, a former Wood-Mackenzie petrochemical analyst and industry consultant, said during the forum. “They challenged growth assumptions not just about the U.S. or China, but the entire market.”

The price of plastics fell (down from about $1 per pound in 2012 when these petrochemical proposals were being launched to about 40 cents per pound in 2020) and some financial analysts now say it’s unlikely that petrochemical development will save the fracking industry—or the local economy.

“The financials do not support the contention that petrochemical development will help,” said Kathy Hipple, finance professor at Bard College and former financial analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). She noted that building petrochemical facilities costs billions of dollars and takes a long time, so companies have to gamble on what the future of the market will look like by the time such a project is complete—and at present, that future doesn’t look promising.

“At this point I don’t believe Shell will hit their financial targets or produce the kind of economic benefits that were initially promised to the state,” she said. “I think that’s why other companies have not rushed in.”

Hipple added that resistance from local communities increasingly shows up in oil and gas financial reports and disclosures.

“More and more we’re seeing from earnings calls and financial reports that local opposition has become a material risk factor,” she said, adding that when it comes to foreign companies looking to get in on a petrochemical buildout, understanding the patchwork of local state and federal regulations is complicated enough without the addition of lawsuits from community groups challenging every step in the permitting process.

“For those in the community wondering if their efforts are bearing fruit,” she said, “I believe they are.”

Investor flight

Some economists remain confident that the price of oil has always been volatile, and that markets will return to normal in the long-term. But Hipple noted that investors have begun to turn away from fossil fuels and virgin plastics, pointing to coal as an example.

“Coal companies have lost 90 percent of their market value even though coal production has only declined 1.5 or 2 percent,” she explained.

“The market is forward looking…and investors know that industry will not continue to buy virgin plastics.”

Hanger added while consumers have benefitted from the low cost of natural gas, many investors lost money in shale gas development, and are instead looking to what the European oil and gas companies are doing next.

“If you look at the majors in the European oil and gas industry like BP and Total and Equinor, they’re all moving into clean tech of one sort or another, making investments in electric charging networks, offshore wind, and solar,” he said.

“This is not the Sierra Club,” he added, “it’s oil and gas companies. To double down or triple down on the shale gas vision or oil and gas industry isn’t even being done by industry at this point…Public money should be synergistic with private investment money. Legislators and economic development folks should follow their lead.”

Hipple agreed. “It’s difficult to sit on a natural resource and not think it’s a ticket to economic development,” she said, “but it’s important to step back and take a cold hard look at economic facts. When you’ve got 11 years of negative cash flows in the fracking industry…it’s not producing jobs, and benefits are not accruing to local communities, it’s really time to step back, take a cold-hearted look, and see what the market is telling us.”

“Simply put,” she said, “the natural gas industry has not delivered the promised benefits for producers, investors—or local communities.”

Refer also to:

2021: New study: Fossil fuels caused 8.7 million deaths globally in 2018, one in five of all people who died that year, exceeds combined total who die globally each year from smoking tobacco plus those who die of malaria. “Without fossil fuel emissions…global economic and health costs would fall by about $2.9tn.”

2021: Judge lets nasty frac’er escape bankruptcy, rules Chesapeake is worth $1 Billion more than the company does, sets free $7 Billion in debt, gives “big payday” to some, says to CEO Robert Lawler: “To remember that a lot of people have suffered a lot of pain for Chesapeake to have a second chance….”

2020: US frac’ers face $300 Billion in writedowns in Q2. “The boom in fracking was largely financed by debt” and we the people are being robbed to pay for the frac’ers’ greed ‘n rape fest.

2020: Encana/Ovintiv Greedy Frac’ing Bloodbath Continues, Kills More Jobs After Promising Not To.

2020: How many Canadian women and children must endure rape and or physical abuse and sexually transmitted diseases to keep the oil patch rolling?

2020: New Study: Again, frac’ing linked to increased sexually transmitted disease

2020: Frac’ers rape the rule of law and gag Canadian First Nations under the guise of “Benefit Agreements”

2020: Why is Zion Market Research promoting Sanjel Corp. as a “Major Market Player?” In 2016, frac’er Sanjel was sold in pieces at a great loss, less than the “$397 million owed 12 banks led by Alberta ATB” – nicely enabled by our courts.

2019: International Human Rights Court Recommends Worldwide Frac Ban. Will rape & pillage enabling Canadian authorities listen?

2019: Frac’ing creates job jobs jobs? Frac Quake Shaker Repsol laying off 30 per cent of Canadian staff

2019: ‘Frac’ intensity in shale wells wears out equipment faster: Halliburton. Is that why the company cut 8% of North American Jobs, shelving unused frac gear?

2019: Where did all those promises of endless frac riches & jobs go? Two of Canada’s biggest frac companies report double-digit percentage revenue declines: Calgary-based Trican (36 per cent fall) and Calfrac (21 per cent fall)

2019: Frac jobs keep getting frac’d: CNX lays off about 50 workers, “This is part of our normal course as we’re always looking…to get better.”

2019: Frac jobs getting frac’d

2018: Study: Counties with fracking have increased rates of sexually transmitted infections; Another study shows link between B.C. extraction industries, domestic abuse

2017: What’s a Frack Ban For? For Country, Security, Public Health, Safe Food & Drinking Water! For Communities, Farm & Family and Democracy! What Does Fracking Bring? Lots of Permanent Harms, Eradication of Long Term Jobs, “Widespread industrialisation, permanent environmental degradation, and severe damage to public health.”

2017: Cheapskate Aquifer-Fracker Encana, sitting on $Billions, kills $50,000.00 annual “corporate partnership” funding to Rosebud Theatre, blames economy. Greed & nastiness more likely reasons. Refer below to the company’s written 2004 “promise” (aka bribe to shut the community up when water wells started to go bad after the company illegally secretly intentionally frac’d the community’s drinking water aquifers).

2016: Jobs Jobs Jobs & Frac Prosperity for All? Buyer to close Sanjel’s Calgary headquarters due to ‘miserable’ demand for its services

2016: Didn’t industry, politicians, regulators promise that fracing creates endless jobs, riches for all? Trican, 10th Largest US Frac Fleet Sold For 38 Cents On The Dollar

2015: What happened to those endless promises that fracing brings jobs jobs jobs and prosperity for all? Trican lays off 137 workers in Odessa, how many in Alberta?

2015: TEXAS FRACKING RAPE IN AUSTIN TODAY: Clearly shows the world how harmful fracing is

2014: What happened to all those jobs fracing creates? Encana bets against frac jobs

2014: Moving-On-To-Greener-Frac-Pastures: After paying 5 times maximum fine to escape criminal charges…Encana leaving Michigan

2014: Harper government gives Sudbury mining centre $15M to help frac companies while closing embassies, libraries and veteran affairs offices, and eliminating 19,000 jobs

2013: Contrary to promises of massive jobs and prosperity for all from hydraulic fracturing, Layoffs begin at Encana

2013: Isn’t frac’ing supposed to create massive prosperity and jobs? Encana proves it isn’t so!

2013: Politicians avoiding tough questions on fracking issue, While the shale gas mantra focuses on jobs, cheap energy and recovery, the evidence contradicts these claims

etc.

2013:

etc.

2012: Warning over social downsides of fracking

2010:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 2010-frack_terrorists.jpg

2010: After regulators warned residents in Pavillion Wyoming not to drink their water frac’d by Encana:

2005 10 12: EnCana donates $3 Million to Colorado Mtn College, creating an odd couple

The deal between EnCana Oil & Gas and my alma mater Colorado Mountain College stinks worse than a frat house with a gas leak during pledge week. … In just a short period the Canadian supercorp has had numerous violations and racked up record fines with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. EnCana has polluted water supplies, caused evacuations of homes, talked of outsourcing Colorado jobs to Chinese workers and has been blamed by residents for tumors and other sudden ailments. Most recently, a gas leak in San Miguel County was so extensive it created a no-fly zone with a 10-mile radius. The problems of a Silt woman dealing with an EnCana gas leak were so severe that her story made it to the floor of the U.S. Senate. Along comes a $3 million donation to the beloved CMC. Boy, is EnCana slick. I don’t know what’s worse: EnCana’s cheap attempt to buy public favor or CMC agreeing to it. 

2004 10 Encana Rosebud Newsletter promises $150,000 to Rosebud School of the Arts after company frac’d community drinking water aquifers and water wells go bad

“Encana is pleased to come on board as a corporate partner, by contributing $150,000 towards the [Rosebud Centre]. An additional [measly] $50,000 [annually] has been committed towards the use of conference services once the new space is built.”

Endless broken “commitments” by Encana to me and my community:

etc.

2004 March: Encana illegally frac’s my community’s drinking water, keeps it secret, covered-up and enabled by Alberta “regulators” and politicians.

etc. etc. etc.

Above slides from Ernst presentations

This entry was posted in Global Frac News. Bookmark the permalink.