The Great Gas Industry Scam

Scams have two parts: “You are going to be rich” and “All you have to do to be rich is...”

Of course, if you actually do the second part you will end up much poorer.

Last summer, the gas industry paid for a study, "An Emerging Giant," which essentially laid out the gas industry scam. Pennsylvania was going to be rich and all we had to do, as a state, to be rich was not tax or regulate the gas industry.

"An Emerging Giant" vastly over hyped the amount of jobs, taxes, and economic development gas exploration will produce. It has and can be refuted by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, comparisons of statistics with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, comparisons with studies from the Penn State Extension and most recently from an independent study by J. M. Barth and Associates.

Although funded by the gas industry’s umbrella organization, the Marcellus Shale Committee, "An Emerging Giant" acquired undeserved credibility by being portrayed as a Pennsylvania State University research paper.

It is a bit difficult to understand how this came about since:

• Both principle authors had left Penn State employ before the document was published.
• Neither author had a background in community economics -- Robert Watson is an engineer and Tim Considine is a fuel  market economist.
• The paper was not peer reviewed.

This industry-financed piece, having the seal of a great research institution on its cover and on every page, has distorted the debate on gas exploration in Pennsylvania.  It has been used to steamroll the legitimate issues of taxation and the environment and by doing so has caused measurable harm to Pennsylvania’s citizens.

WE CALL ON PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
TO DISASSOCIATE THE UNIVERSITY FROM THIS PAPER

Attached below is my testimony before the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee at Lycoming College last week, which further explores this issue and provides links to supporting material.

More information is available online at http://www.responsibledrillingalliance.org.