Fracking Your Future: Campus Drilling Extends Far Beyond Pennsylvania

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The oil and gas industry plans to perform hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) on college campuses in Pennsylvania, just as it currently does in close proximity to K-12 schools nationwide.ย 

But as NPRย demonstrated in a recent report, that’s just the tip of theย iceberg.

โ€œMore than a dozen schools in states as varied as Texas, Montana, Ohio and West Virginia are already tapping natural resources on college campuses,โ€ the report explains. โ€œThe University of Southern Indiana recently started pumpingย oil.โ€

Like Pennsylvania – which has seen higher education budget cuts totaling over $460 million since Republican Gov. Tom Corbett took office in 2010 – nearly all of these states have faced massive cuts in their most recentย budgets.ย 

Texas, led by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, saw a $1.7 billion funding cut in its most recent budget cycle. Indiana, led by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, was hit with $150 million in higher education cuts in its most recentย budget.

Montana, led by Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer, was handed $14.6 million in higher education cuts in the most recent budget. And West Virginia, led by Democratic Governorย Earl Ray Tomblin, saw $34 million evaporate from its higher education war chest in its most recent budgetย cycle.

Fracking on Campus a New Fundraising Mechanism, But โ€œYou Can’t Drinkย Moneyโ€

Fracking on cash-strapped college campuses in these states has become a new fundraising mechanism and a way to padย endowments.

โ€œโ€ฆ[W]e can put the revenue toward encouraging gifts to the endowment,โ€ Kristin Sullivan, a spokeswoman at University of Texas-Arlington toldย NPR. โ€œThis is a finite resource. You have to be very wise about how you allocate thatย revenue.โ€ย 

The costs associated with fracking on university grounds, though, go far above and beyond revenue it brings into vastly under-funded schools. The climate and ecological costsย are also a huge part of any honestย equation.ย 

Or put much more simply, โ€œyou can’t drink money.โ€

Photo Credit:ย Wikimedia Commons |ย EMBaero

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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