Catch a glimpse of what you missed from “Where the Good Money Is: How the US Economy Benefits from Shale.”
Up for Consideration: How does shale benefit the US economy?
The Skinny: Using traditional cost benefit analysis, “The Arithmetics of Shale Gas” by Yale University grads concludes that, for the year 2010, the consumer surplus from shale gas was “in excess of $100 billion to the US economy.”
What it Means: The cumulative fiscal impact of shale development affects all Americans, not just energy workers or those who live in a producing region. Shale production leads to:
• Cheaper over-all fuel costs
• Less-expensive consumer products
• An approximate savings of $50 billion annually to the national natural gas bill
The Take-Away: Even factoring in the costs of hypothetical spill scenarios for 100 incidents over the course of a single year at $250 million, when compared to the $100 billion in savings, shale’s economic impact is 400 times more positive than negative.
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