Report: “Keep-It-In-The-Ground” Fracking Ban on Federal Lands Would Have “Severe” Impact on U.S. Economy
Wednesday August 24, 2016
A new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy finds that the “Keep It in The Ground” (KIITG) movement’s goal of ending fossil fuel energy development on federal lands would have an “immediate and severe” impact on the U.S. economy.
The report is the first in a series dubbed the “Energy Accountability Series,” that promises to take “a substantive look at what would happen if energy proposals from candidates and interest groups were actually adopted.” From the report:
“Instituting a ban on future federal-lands leasing and stopping the current production of these resources would increase energy prices for consumers by removing low-cost resources from the available supply stream. The impact would be immediate and severe to the U.S. economy, leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and robbing the federal government and primarily eastern states of potentially billions of dollars in revenues in the form of lost royalties.” (emphasis added)
Nationwide, the analysis finds that stopping energy development on federal lands would result in a loss of “nearly a quarter of the nation’s current production of coal, oil and natural gas,” more than “$11.3 billion per year in annual royalties and rental fees for federal and state governments,” and a loss of “more than 100,000 direct jobs” and another “280,000 indirect and induced jobs.” And as the report illustrates, the impacts would hit western and gulf coast states especially hard. As the press release announcing the report highlights:
“For instance, Wyoming would lose $900 million in annual royalty collections—which represents 20 percent of the state’s annual expenditures. New Mexico could lose $500 million—8 percent of the state’s total General Fund Revenues. Colorado would see the loss of 50,000 jobs, while the Gulf States...