October marked the 20th anniversary since the first Marcellus Shale well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 2004. Like Pennsylvania’s Drake Well, which launched commercial oil drilling across the world in 1859, Range Resource’s Renz #1 has been a game-changer for the Commonwealth and the United States. As Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, told the Observer-Reporter:
“Since Range Resources’ successful commercialization of the Renz No. 1 Well in 2004, natural gas has positioned itself as a transformative industry with wide-ranging positive impacts on our economy, community and country.
“The industry supports (many) jobs, creates significant local and state tax revenues, and generates billions in economic benefits. It also allows Washington County to be a leader in our nation’s energy independence – reducing our reliance on foreign energy sources.
“The (chamber) recognized the industry’s potential early on and concentrated our efforts on educating our business community on the opportunities available in the natural gas economy, and how our local businesses could work together with the energy industry in mutually beneficial ways.”
“We are proud that some of the leading companies in the energy industry – including producers, transportation, processing and secondary service providers – have selected Washington County as their home – where they are now our family, friends and neighbors.”
The sentiment is shared across the Commonwealth – in Pennsylvania exit polls, a majority of voters responded in support of fracking, which is why it was a top issue during the presidential campaign.
Fracking has been a major economic boon for Pennsylvania.
From October 2004 to October 2024, more than 14,500 unconventional shale wells were drilled in Pennsylvania in 39 of the state’s 67 counties.
Just how much of an impact has this development had on Pennsylvania? A 2023 Marcellus Shale Coalition economic impact analysis found in 2022, Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry:
- “Supported 123,000 jobs, with an average wage of ~$97,000. That’s 113 percent higher than the average median wage in the state and part of the over $12 billion provided in labor income.
- “Contributed more than $41 billion in economic activity. This boosted the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) by nearly $25 billion.
- “Generated $3.2 billion in state and local tax revenues, $279 million of which supported the Impact Fee that is distributed to communities in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, as well as various environmental and conservation programs.
- “Contributed $2.6 billion in federal tax revenues.
- “Paid $6.3 billion in royalties to private and government entities.”
Unjustified Calls to Stop Fracking In Pennsylvania Continue
Despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s industry has demonstrated over the last two decades that it can safely develop the natural gas that is vital for energy security domestically and abroad, there are still those seeking to shut down this critical development. In another Observer-Reporter piece on the 20 years of Pennsylvania’s shale development, Ned Ketyer, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania – a group that received $272,500 from the Heinz Foundation from 2020 to 2024 and $429,000 from the Park Foundation from 2020 to 2023 to stop fracking in Pennsylvania – claims:
“The science is in. Study after study shows fracking can’t be done safely anywhere, including in Pennsylvania.”
In testimony in favor of Cecil Township’s now-adopted setbacks preventing development within 2,500 feet of “protected structures” and 5,000 feet from schools and hospitals – essentially a ban – Ketyer said it was “a small but necessary step in protecting the health of the community,” basing the rationale on epidemiological research that is riddled with flaws and, by definition, is not intended to show causation.
But as the Marcellus Shale Coalition wrote about the setback announcement:
“This decision isn’t grounded in science or public safety; rather, it’s a purely political move aiming to shut down an industry crucial to Pennsylvania’s economy, our nation’s energy security and, critically, our ability to continue driving environmental progress.”
Reality of health research doesn’t typically match the headlines: Correlation does not equal causation.
The research that is often used to justify things like setbacks or other local bans on development, have a few things in common. Research on potential health impacts from fracking:
- Rarely, if ever, conducts any kind of monitoring to determine if pathways exist for exposure and give insight to the concentration of assumed pollutants. Instead, this epidemiological research relies on limited health data and uses proximity for a proxy to exposure.
- Often disregards or doesn’t account for a variety of variables that could be impacting health like other environmental factors, life choices like smoking, health history, etc.
- Frequently ignores or downplays data showing higher impacts further away from oil and gas development.
- Uses exaggerated concentrations or highly unrealistic conditions to reach desired conclusions.
- Skews findings in headlines and media interviews like has been done with the University of Pittsburgh’s recent study that actually found “no association” between fracking and childhood cancers and “minimal” association for infant birth weight, acknowledging that fracking poses “little health risk.”
In contrast to headlines or the claims made by groups like PSR to media that fracking is the cause of perceived health impacts, the reality is there’s no evidence that it actually is responsible. As Ketyer acknowledged in his Cecil Township testimony:
“What the studies don’t tell us is what exactly is causing those health problems.”
He continued:
“While we don’t know with certainty which single factor or combination of factors are to blame for the health harms we are witnessing in people living near fracking, there are things about fracking that we know with a great deal of certainty…because fracking is inherently dirty and dangerous, and that is something industry rules and government regulations haven’t been unable to fix.” (emphasis added)
In fact, in 2019, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Pennsylvania Department of Health analyzed studies claiming to link health impacts to oil and natural gas development. After reviewing 20 epidemiological studies, with 32 different health outcomes, the two health departments found an “insufficient weight of evidence” to link living near oil and natural gas production sites with poor health outcomes:
“Since only a few outcomes were covered by multiple studies, there was insufficient weight of evidence for most health outcomes. We found studies of populations living near ONG operations provide limited evidence (modest scientific findings that support the outcome, but with significant limitations) of harmful health effects including asthma exacerbations and various self-reported symptoms. For all other health outcomes, we found conflicting evidence (mixed), insufficient evidence, or in some cases, a lack of evidence of the possibility for harmful health effects.” (emphasis added)
These findings were in line with similar analyses like Resources for the Future’s 2017 comprehensive report where researchers reviewed 32 of the more prominent shale-focused studies on birth outcomes, cancers, asthma, and other health effects, including migraines and hospitalization. RFF found that none of those major categories of studies were deemed “high quality,” while studies on birth defects, hospitalizations and multiple symptoms were cumulatively deemed to be of “low quality,” as the following matrix from the report shows.
Notably, even the groups behind anti-fracking efforts have been forced to admit similar findings. In 2019, researcher and executive director of the openly anti-fracking Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) Seth Shonkoff – the activist who wrote a 2012 memo encouraging anti-fracking groups to connect health problems and fracking even when no evidence existed to support the claims – co-authored a report admitting that the vast majority of scientific research shows no harmful air pollutants near oil and natural gas sites. As the report explains:
“Air pollution near oil and gas production typically measures in concentrations within healthy air standards…”
Shonkoff and his co-authors analyzed 37 peer-reviewed journal articles on hazardous air pollutants from 2012 to 2018, finding:
“[M]easurements of hazardous air pollutant concentrations near operational sites have generally failed to capture levels above standard health benchmarks; yet, the majority of studies continue to find poor health outcomes increasing as distance from these operations decreases.” (emphasis added)
The research team also conceded that oil and natural gas [ONG] is not the only potential source for the rare instances of emissions they did find, if it’s actually even the source at all:
“Many of the peer-reviewed studies investigated a broad range of target analytes in ambient air, several of which are ubiquitous in the environment and are sourced not only in upstream ONG operations. … The abundance of formaldehyde detection in ambient collected samples may actually indicate secondary atmospheric formation as the dominant source and not primary emissions released directly from an ONG point source.” (emphasis added)
Like PSEHE’s analysis found, when monitoring is done findings continue to demonstrate that oil and gas development is being done in a manner that is protective of public health.
Bottom Line: Over the last 20 years, shale development has been a game changer for Pennsylvania. It’s enabled the Commonwealth to become the second largest producer of natural gas in the country, keeping energy prices affordable within our borders and providing energy security for the United States and our global allies. Most importantly, all of this has been possible without the widespread health impacts that activists continue to claim are happening to justify stopping this critical industry – and that’s a fact.
This post is cross-posted on EIDHealth.org.
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