Fracking, the industrial technique for extracting gas from underground rock formations, carries several negative consequences that are now universally recognised. Children born in areas where oil and gas are extracted face a risk of congenital heart defects; adolescents who grow up near extraction sites may suffer from developmental delays; the hydraulic fracturing of rock also requires large quantities of water and harmful chemicals that partly remain underground, risking contamination of aquifers, and encourages seismic activity. Yet fracking has in recent years been held up as a virtuous activity, above all for the new employment opportunities it supposedly offers to the territories it exploits. Now, even this alleged benefit has been shown to be false: research by MIT explains that the number of jobs created is significantly lower than those promised, and that the profits derived from extraction have brought no improvements to the areas concerned.

MIT Technology Review ✓ @techreview

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It’s important to explode the myth that fracking is a golden goose because it takes away one of the primary justifications for a polluting industry. bit.ly/3qDJrfj

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Fracking to enrich Pennsylvania

It is above all in the United States that the fracking bubble burst. From 2008, the state of Pennsylvania had become the most important centre in the world for the extraction of so-called shale gas. Former president Donald Trump had on several occasions praised this industry, which, according to his plans, could make the United States energy-independent and guarantee new jobs. Pennsylvania and neighbouring Ohio had even earned the nickname of the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas".

The advent of fracking also offered the enticing prospect of bringing de-industrialised cities and communities towards a better future. Republican senator Ted Cruz, during a visit to an extraction facility, had spoken of "millions of well-paying new jobs" that fracking could bring. Today, that same facility the politician visited has 40 employees, compared to nearly 300 in previous years. The report compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explains that the flop is now evident: as early as January 2019 there were only 19 drilling rigs across the whole of Pennsylvania, down from 114 in the same month of 2012.

Inflated figures in the sector

Today the companies operating in the sector, often linked to the oil multinationals involved in barrel production, must contend with pressure from environmentalists who no longer accept operations that pose a risk to nature. Moreover, politicians and companies must answer for promises left unfulfilled. At a rally in Latrobe, Trump had claimed that fracking would create 940,000 jobs in Pennsylvania alone. MIT reports that the actual figure at the time was closer to 26,000, including indirect employment such as delivery workers and drivers. A significant scaling-down, confirmed by the fact that during the period of apparent fracking boom in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, "companies with a financial interest in the expansion of drilling and their political allies systematically overstated the sector's impact on employment."

Ohio River Valley Institute @O_R_V_I

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#RGGI funds can help local coal communities grow new businesses, attract investments and create jobs. ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/options-and-op…

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The United States Chamber of Commerce declared in 2012 that shale gas production in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia had created more than 300,000 new jobs. Pennsylvania's Department of Labor and Industry counted only 18,000. But that is not all: although Pennsylvania's gas boom peaked between 2011 and 2012, the state's unemployment rate actually rose by nearly one percentage point during that period.

A significant document published recently by the Ohio River Valley Institute describes in detail how fracking's promise of jobs and prosperity was a mirage. In the 22 counties of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that produce the majority of America's natural gas, economic output grew by 60 per cent from 2008 to 2019, yet very little of the income generated by that growth remained in local communities. The region saw only 1.6 per cent employment growth, compared to 9.9 per cent nationally. These negative results appear likely to bring about a definitive halt to the fracking sector. The MIT researchers conclude by stating that had the same investments been made in tourism rather than in fracking, communities would today be seeing long-term returns in terms of both image and revenue. Instead, fracking risks having ruined the very natural areas that could have represented tourist attractions.