Obama, Biden Parroting Bogus Gas Industry Talking Points

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For several years, both President Obama and Vice President Biden have been singing the praises of natural gas and hydraulic fracturing, claiming that the upcoming โ€œcheap energy boomโ€ would bring hundreds of thousands of jobs to work-hungryย Americans.

The claim, which reached the most ears during the Presidentโ€™s 2012 State of the Union Address and was parroted throughout the campaign season, was that the new shale gas bonanza would bring 600,000 new jobs to America over the next decade.ย  With job creation as a top campaign issue, this talking point resonated well with Americanย voters.ย 

And while the talking point was blindly reprinted by countless media outlets, the source has been traced back to the dirty energy industry itself.ย  Specifically, a 2012 shale gas / fracking booster sheetย produced by the American Petroleumย Institute.

API, the oil and gas industry’s chief lobbying front in Washington, successfully influenced the Presidentโ€™s administration to embrace fracking as part of the โ€œall of the aboveโ€ energy approach that the administration hasย pushed since Obama’s first days in office.

From the president’s 2012 State of the Union address:ย  โ€œWe have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop thisย energy.โ€

Just this month, Vice President Joe Biden is quoted in Rolling Stone repeating the claim: โ€œThere are going to be 600,000 new jobs out there in the gas industry over the next 10 to 12 years.โ€

But the numbers within the claim donโ€™t add up.ย  And when the entire picture of the shale gas industry is taken into context, you see why.ย 

The majority of those 600,000 jobs already exist, and job stats in the shale fields aren’t matching their rosy forecast. There will not be 600,000 new jobs, even by the industryโ€™s ownย admission.ย 

As it turns out, the shale gas boom has actually been a bust for job creation. While it’s true that 36,000 natural gas jobs were added around the country over the last 2 years, the industry wasnโ€™t happy about the fact that the increased production drove down the price of natural gas, so the country is now on track to lose 72,000 natural gas jobs in the comingย year.ย 

Apparently the dirty energy industry forgot the most basic concept within macro economics: When supply goes up and demand goes down, prices plummet. And thatโ€™s exactly what has happened with shale gas in America right now.

It appears unlikely that many of those โ€œ600,000 jobsโ€ will actually materialize in America, but that hasnโ€™t stopped the President and Vice President from repeating the industryโ€™s talking points, which is enough for them to be able to declare victory on this issue, while the American people are once again live with the frackingย mess.

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Farron Cousins is the executive editor of The Trial Lawyer magazine, and his articles have appeared on The Huffington Post, Alternet, and The Progressive Magazine. He has worked for the Ring of Fire radio program with hosts Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mike Papantonio, and Sam Seder since August 2004, and is currently the co-host and producer of the program. He also currently serves as the co-host of Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV, a daily program airing nightly at 8:30pm eastern. Farron received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida in 2005 and became a member of American MENSA in 2009.ย  Follow him on Twitterย @farronbalanced.

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