Following a Reuters dispatch and a Cleveland State University study, analysis of Northeast Ohio’s burgeoning natural gas and oil drilling sector show that it’s booming.
For manufacturers and fat cats at the top of the food chain, that is.
The hydraulic fracturing and drilling procedure – “fracking,” colloquially – isn’t spurring job creation the way Ohio’s leaders may have marketed it in the past. A quick illustration: The $1.1-billion Vallourec Star steel pipe mill in Youngstown will employ 350 workers. Contrast that groundswell of jobs, jobs, jobs with RG Steel’s 1,000 workers, back when that plant was located in the same location region as Vallourec Star is currently.
Here’s Gov. John Kasich’s spokesman, Rob Nichols, in late 2011:
“Over the next four years, shale is expected to create more than 200,000 jobs in Ohio and bring in nearly half a billion dollars in additional revenue to the state,” he said. “While the governor has warned the industry that they better play by our environmental rules and regulations, we are glad to have the support of an industry that is poised to reinvigorate Ohio’s economy and put a whole bunch of Ohioans back to work.”
Just this past March, in fact, CSU determined that “[e]mployment growth in strong shale counties is not yet evident.” (“Strong shale counties” refer to Ashtabula, Belmont, Coshocton, Geauga, Portage, Stark, Trumbull and others to the south and east of Cleveland.) The study does cite outside investment and increased sales activity as boons to local economies.
In other words, response to fracking in Ohio is a mixed bag, depending on whether you’re talking with a local business leader or a local resident looking for work.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.
First off, it is factually incorrect that Vallourec Star’s $1 billion plant is located at the same location as RG Steel. Vallourec is in Youngstown, RG Steel is in Warren. Second, combining the two, we unfortunately have a net loss of 650 jobs. I think thats better than a loss of 1000 jobs if Vallourec didnt exist. Next, in the Youngstown metro, companies such as TMK IPSCO, Vallourec Star, VAM USA, Weatherford, Dearing Compressor and Pump, VEC/evets, Exterran, IPS, De-Cal industries, have all built new facilities or expanded operations because of the Utica and Marcellus Shale activities, and the total job creation is 1500 direct jobs. This doesnt include construction jobs for these plants, and also the processing facilties, pipelines, support services, etc. So please be factual when talking about the job creation.
Scene doesn’t really seek to be factual. They just try to bash John Kasich whenever possible, while never praising him. Of course, any study that comes out that makes Kasich look bad is always 100% true and unbiased.
Not to mention all the hospital jobs that will be created when we are all dying from the chemical cocktails they are using. Hang in there, Ohio… people will start getting sick soon!
Obviously the people who are big fans of all this fracking don’t plan on drinking the local water ever again. Then they can move away, shrug, and say “not my problem!”