Jobs

Clean energy jobs growing while fossil fuel jobs declining

“The Declining Business Case for Fracking”
By Jim Emberger, Telegraph Journal, 24 August 2018

At a recent oil and gas industry conference, Terry Spencer, head of natural gas infrastructure company, ONEOK, told the audience, “One of these days, one of these big ol’ fracs will be operated with nobody there.”

“We are, as an industry, working towards where we can operate 24/7, unattended.”

He wasn’t forecasting the distant future.

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Green Energy Solutions

On October 3, 2015, NBASGA member, Liane Thibodeau, presented ‘Green Energy Solutions‘ to an appreciative audience at the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick Annual General Meeting in Fredericton, NB.  Thanks to Rob Turgeon (Apple Hill Video), we are able to provide the full presentation for you here.

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Will Government put people ahead of politics?

Public policy must reflect care for citizens’ well-being

For four years, NBASGA’s representatives from 22 community organizations have worked to educate the public about the peer-reviewed scientific evidence of the harmful effects of shale gas extraction. As a result of our efforts, 65% of voters in the September election, voted for parties that promised a moratorium on activities related to oil and gas exploration and development.

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New Brunswick Election: NBASGA Looks between the Lines of the Electoral Debate

New Brunswickers who are looking for the facts about shale gas are not getting them from the current political debate. They are often being deliberately misled or else are confused by politicians who don’t understand the issues, themselves. And they are definitely missing out on critical information.

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Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

The New Brunswick Government says it’s all about ‘Jobs-Jobs-Jobs.’

We think maybe not so many.

jobsA new study from independent, nonpartisan fiscal research groups in the six states comprising the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations in the US concludes that the shale gas industry’s effect on job growth was negligible.

“Shale drilling has made little difference in job growth in any of the six states we studied,” said Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center in Pennsylvania. “We know this because we now have data on what happened, not what industry supporters hoped would happen.”

Report Highlights:

  • The number of shale jobs created is far below industry claims and remains a small share of overall employment.
  • Between 2005 and 2012, fewer than four new direct shale-related jobs have been created for each new well drilled, much less than estimates as high as 31 direct jobs per well in some industry-financed studies.
  • Industry-funded studies have used questionable assumptions in economic modeling to inflate the number of jobs created in related supply chain industries (indirect jobs) as well as those created by the spending of income earned from the industry or its suppliers (induced jobs).

(Note: The report on New Brunswick by Deloitte, which the government keeps quoting, predicts 21 jobs per well.

Why the exaggeration?

“Industry supporters have exaggerated the jobs impact in order to minimize, or avoid altogether, taxation, regulation and even careful examination of shale drilling,” said Frank Mauro, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York.

Resource Links

Link #1 summarizes the report; Link#2  is the fiscal report itself; Link #3 is our own info sheet on jobs.

  1. http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/21/study-confirms-job-exaggerated-by-fracking-industry/
  2. http://www.multistateshale.org/
  3. NBASGA’s Info sheet on jobs