J.D. Vance maybe “salivating,” but people know false promise of growth when they see it

By Randi Pokladnik

A guest column by Sen. J.D. Vance was recently published in the Marietta Times in which he tried to convince the residents of Southeast Ohio that fracking the Utica shale was going to be their road to prosperity.

You could almost picture senator salivating over the Utica shale under Ohio.

Ohio’s state parks have fallen prey to anonymous out-of-state drillers who are currently nominating entire state parks like Salt Fork and Wolf Run for fracking. Recently, this procedure has been shown to be tainted by a questionable public comment process.

Unlike the senator, those of us who were born and raised in Appalachia realize having abundant resources does not translate to a booming local economy or long-term economic gains.

McDowell County in Southern West Virginia is a prime example of what happens when an area is treated like a mineral colony by politicians and industry.

For decades the county led the nation in coal production; today it is one of the poorest counties in the nation.

Some landowners in Southeast Ohio have made considerable money from leasing large acreages, but for most, the promised economic gains have not materialized.

A 2021 report from the Ohio River Valley Institute revealed that; much of the profits made from fracking does not stay in the local economy; workers are often from out of state; and the most fracked counties actually lost populations and jobs.

A drive through the county I live in, Harrison County, provides visual evidence of that false promise of growth.

Unlike the Scio Pottery which at one time employed over 1300 local citizens, the million-dollar fractionator in the village of Scio employs less than 70 Ohioans.

But the fossil fuel industry has made record profits.

A drive through the county I live in, Harrison County, provides visual evidence of that false promise of growth.

Unlike the Scio Pottery which at one time employed over 1300 local citizens, the million-dollar fractionator in the village of Scio employs less than 70 Ohioans.

But the fossil fuel industry has made record profits.

In 2022 the top five fossil fuel companies had pre-tax profits of $264.3 billion.  Additionally, “fossil fuels benefited from record subsidies of $13 million a minute in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund, despite being the primary cause of the climate crisis.”

Unprecedented weather events this past summer have been exacerbated by the climate crisis.

Scientific studies show that oil and gas fields are major methane emitters driving the climate crisis: the Marcellus shale is ranked the number one methane bomb in the world. The fossil fuel industry has known for years that burning coal, oil and gas will result in a warming planet, yet Senator Vance tells us we must increase our reliance on the greenhouse gas methane.

Vance urges us to invest in more fracking infrastructure which means more destruction of our land, air and water.

But, as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, stranded fossil-fuel assets will result in major losses for investors. It is time for Appalachia to invest in the cheapest energy choice today: renewable energy.

We should be proud that in spite of anti-renewable energy policies in Ohio, the combined manufacturing capabilities of two solar companies in Northwest Ohio (First Solar and Toledo Solar) place Ohio second only to China when it comes to being the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer.

The new Nottingham 100-megawatt solar project in Harrison County will pay the county $700,000 to $900,000 annually. The money will go towards the schools and the library.

We can watch another “boom and bust” fossil fuel era impoverish the region or we can move into the future with a new vision of economic development that does not require destroying our beautiful state parks, endangering our health, or scorching our planet. 

Our children deserve a livable future.

Randi Pokladnik is a retired research chemist and educator who volunteers for several environmental organizations including the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

This opinion piece was originally published in The Columbus Dispatch on September 15, 2023.

Photo: Compressor station flaring methane in Butler County, Ohio. By Ted Auch / FracTracker Alliance