The Fracking Dilemma

Good Washington Post piece on the dilemma Ohio faces over fracking. People really want jobs. Cities like Canton, Youngstown, and Toledo are suffering. Long-term deindustrialization exacerbated by factory closures since 2007 have sent the area into a deep depression, as much psychological as economic. Ohioans identify their state as a working-class, industrial place. So fracking presents some job possibilities and the kind of blue-collar they want. At the same time, no one wants their water polluted or earthquakes rocking them while they sleep. And Ohioans greatly fear fracking will cause these problems, as it has in other places. Polls show that Ohioans want the jobs but want a drilling moratorium until we learn more about fracking’s effects. Of course, the petroleum industry is plowing ahead wherever possible.

But the promise of jobs may be a chimera for most. The Center for Economic and Policy Research links to this Food and Water Watch report that notes the likelihood of no more than 10,000 jobs created in Ohio from fracking. That’s not nothing, but it’s less than 3% of the jobs lost in the state since 2007. Is the environmental impact worth this relatively small economic gain?