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Monday, March 9, 2020

A U.S. Fracking Ban Would Wreck the U.S. Economy

BACKGROUND:
Hydraulic fracturing 
 ( aka "fracking" )
enables the 
cost-effective 
extraction of 
once-inaccessible 
oil and natural gas 
deposits. 

Fracking was so 
the effective at 
producing oil and gas,
that the U.S. industry,
has not been profitable.

With the resulting 
low prices of oil 
and natural gas,
a lot of money 
invested in the
U.S. oil and gas
fracking industry 
will be lost.



THE  STUDIES:
(1)
A new 2020 study 
from the 
American Petroleum 
Institute ( API) is titled:
    "America’s 
Progress at Risk: 
An Economic Analysis 
of a Ban on Fracking 
and Federal Leasing 
for Natural Gas and Oil 
Development."

Modeling data 
were provided by 
the consulting firm 
OnLocation.

A U.S. ban on 
hydraulic fracturing 
 ( aka “fracking” )
would seriously 
damage U.S. 
industrial output,
and increase 
energy prices.

A fracking ban 
would lead to a loss 
in gross domestic 
product (GDP) of 
$7.1 trillion by 2030, 
including $1.2 trillion 
in 2022 alone. 

In 2022 alone, 
7.5 million jobs 
would be lost 
( almost 5% of the 
U.S. total workforce ):
1,103,000 in Texas, 
    765,000 in California, 
    711,000 in Florida, 
    551,000 in Pennsylvania, 
    500,000 in Ohio. 

States with the highest 
job losses as a share
of overall employment 
would be: 
North Dakota (76,000 jobs lost), 
Oklahoma (319,000), 
New Mexico (149,000), 
Wyoming (48,000), 
Louisiana (321,000), 
West Virginia (109,000), 
Kansas (208,000), and 
Colorado (353,000).



(2)
A September 2019 report 
conducted by Kleinhenz 
& Associates for the 
Ohio Oil and Gas Energy 
Education Program shows 
increased oil and natural gas 
production from fracking 
has saved American 
consumers $1.1 trillion
in the decade from 2008 
to 2018.



(3)
A prior report, 
released in 
November 2019, 
by the 
U.S. Chamber 
of Commerce’s 
Global Energy
Institute, concludes 
that a fracking ban 
would eliminate 
19 million jobs 
through 2025, 
and reduce GDP 
by $7.1 trillion. 



(4)
In 2018 alone, 
according to the 
National Bureau 
of Economic Research, 
oil and gas extraction 
accounted for $218 billion 
of U.S. economic output.



(5)
Another study published 
in the American Economic 
Review in April 2017 found: 
“each million dollars 
of new [oil and gas] 
production produces 
$80,000 in wage income 
and $132,000 in royalty 
and business income 
within a county. 

Within 100 miles, 
one million dollars 
of new production 
generates $257,000 
in wages and $286,000 
in royalty and business 
income.”


For low-income families, 
who spend the largest 
share of their income 
on energy costs, 
these savings are 
very significant. --
a savings of 6.8%
of total income in the 
lowest income quintile.



(6)
Hydraulic fracturing 
activity delivered 
a 10% increase 
in employment, 
according to a 
December 2016 study, 
conducted by researchers 
at the University of Chicago, 
Princeton University, 
and the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. 



(7)
According to the 
Federal Reserve Bank 
of Dallas, the shale 
industry alone drove 
10% of U.S. GDP 
from 2010 to 2015.