• Job growth- According to Heritage Foundation, it creates jobs for geologists, engineers, pipe welders, etc.
  • Revitalized dying towns because it increases demands for restaurants, hardware stores, and other types of stores.
  • Fracking lowered the price of natural gas as well as brought stability to these prices.
  • As of 2011, MCF says the price averaged about $3.95/gallon for gas.
  • “Between 2007 and 2013, consumer gas bills dropped by $13billion dollars a year as a result of ‘fracking.'”
  • CA Independent Petroleum Association reports saving about $15billion a year from not having to import natural gas from other countries.
  • A negative implication was the drinking water became contaminated from the fracking.
  • Clean up of drinking water contamination was so expensive it was not even considered.
  • Another negative implication is the price of homes near the well site declines by 3% to 14%.
  • Carbon tax is not ideal because it passes the cost onto the consumers and gives money to the government rather than to the people harmed.
  • Court administered compensation is a better possibility because it lets the money from the company be flowed directly to the families that were harmed by fracking.

Zainab Baig

Reid Vero

Emilia Decaudin

Katie Johnson

 

CItation:

Dews, Fred. “The Economic Benefits of Fracking.” Brookings, Brookings, 29 July 2016, www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2015/03/23/the-economic-benefits-of-fracking/.

“The Costs of Fracking.” The Costs of Fracking | Environment America, 20 Sept. 2012, environmentamerica.org/reports/ame/costs-fracking.

Loris, Nicolas. “Hydraulic Fracturing: Critical for Energy Production, Jobs, and Economic Growth.” The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org/environment/report/hydraulic-fracturing-critical-energy-production-jobs-and-economic-growth.

 

Further Research:

  • Impact on tourism
  • Medical costs associated with fracking