The Trump administration unveiled its replacement of the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP), the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. The goal of the CPP was to help curtail the harmful pollution caused by emissions from generation of electricity, particularly from coal-fired power plants, which is causing severe environmental and health problems throughout the world. While some view the…
Energy & Environment
Earlier this month, this blog post examined the impact of the booms and busts of the natural gas industry in the counties where it is most active, using some broad economic metrics. As it showed, despite producing billions of dollars in natural gas during the recent boom in production, there hasn't been a significant impact on…
WVCBP executive director Ted Boettner presented at the Appalachian Justice Symposium - West Virginia Law Review in Morgantown on the "resource curse" and how it has impacted the state's economy and workforce over the years. View Ted's presentation here.
On the eve of the Marcellus Shale boom, we at the West Virginia Center on Budget Policy released a report on the economic boom and bust cycles of West Virginia’s natural resource extraction economy. AS the report showed, counties in West Virginia with high concentrations of mining employment were particularly affected by the boom and…
This report card evaluates the current policies of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in a range of policy areas informed by the research of the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative (MSSRC). It compares policies across the three states that address the social and economic issues that unconventional drilling delivers to the communities in which it occurs.…
This handbook provides recommendations to county and local governments, human and social services, police and emergency services, and other local officials dealing with unconventional gas drilling. These recommendations are based on previous research conducted by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative (MSSRC) to document the human and social service impacts of increased drilling. Read PDF of report. The MSSRC…
The development of the Marcellus Shale has led to a boom in West Virginia’s natural gas production. But aside from the increase in drilling activity and state and local tax revenue, the natural gas boom has not brought with it the jobs and economic growth that many predicted. While the state’s natural gas production has…
On May 20, 2015, WVCBP Executive Director Ted Boettner took part in a legislative briefing in Columbus, Ohio sponsored by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative and Ohio Assembly members Jack Cera (District 96) and Michele Lepore-Hagan (District 58) to discuss how Ohio can maximize benefits and minimize costs in shale drilling in Ohio.Ted's presentation explored how…
In the last post, we looked at how West Virginia - especially southern West Virginia - is being out-competed by other coal regions because of the decline in coal mining productivity that makes it cheaper to produce coal in places like Illinois and Wyoming. Not only do West Virginia coal producers face stiff competition from…
In the last post, I looked at the rapid decline in coal mining productivity in West Virginia. This post will show how the decline in productivity has played out over the last few years and how it is has resulted in West Virginia losing coal market share with other coal producing regions. #3 West Virginia…