Corbett Ad claims 6 times more jobs resulted from fracking than actually is true

[JPZenger]

Corbett's campaign is going to break all of the truth-a-meters this year.



http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=518843

AP Article, excerpts:

"It might sound good as a campaign claim, especially if you're trying to take credit for it: The Marcellus shale natural gas industry supports more than 200,000 jobs, goes an online ad for Gov. Tom Corbett. Then there's what Corbett said in his first re-election campaign speech: "The energy industry in Pennsylvania is now supporting the livelihoods of over 200,000 people and their families." The problem is, it's an iffy claim for an energy sector that economists say is relatively small.

...The Labor and Industry Department statistic counts six "core" industries that involve oil and gas extraction and pipelines. Over four years, those jobs grew by 17,414 to 28,155. Then it counts 30 "ancillary" industries, including highway construction, metal making, laboratories, trucking, power plants and engineers. Over four years, those jobs grew by 13,352 to 203,814.

Tim Kelsey, a Penn State professor of agricultural economics and a co-director of the university's Center for Economic and Community Development, said an academic economist's very rough calculation of the job impact would be closer to multiplying by two the increase in core jobs - 17,414 - to get a figure of about 34,000 or 35,000. And that includes ripple effects, Kelsey said."

[JPZenger]

1. Is there is line in the econometric model for hookers serving visiting Texans?

[Curmudgeoness]

2. And many of those jobs created here

are being done by people from other states who are not moving here permanently. Up the street from me, a large house was sold. There are now, for the last couple of months, about 6-8 cars and trucks parked there with North Dakota plates. All men living there. The neighborhood is not zoned for anything but single family dwellings, but I don't know enough yet to report it to the city. But the point is that these people are here, and are working in drilling, but they are not PA residents.....so what is the point? Will Corbett address this? Ha!