An encouraging study from the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) should go a long way to quell critics of the shale gas and oil boom.
“(O)n average the benefits outweigh the costs to local communities,” the study concluded.
The study is titled “The Local Economic and Welfare Consequences of Hydraulic Fracturing.” Better known as “fracking,” the process had led to a revolution in recovering trapped natural gas and oil from shale rock in many parts of the nation, including ours..
“North Dakota’s Bakken shale and Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale saw the largest benefits,” the study found, “with house price increases of 23 percent and 9 percent, respectively.”
This doesn’t mean there are no deleterious effects from the fracking revolution.There are. And the study discusses those. But, on average, this study suggests the benefits are greater than the detriments.
Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute conducted the study for the NBER.
Teachers in the Keystone Oaks School District have authorized their union to call a strike if contract talks continue to be unproductive, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Talks began a year ago; teachers have been working under terms of their expired contract since last summer.
And once again, “public servants” — “professionals” — are prepared to hold parents and students hostage — and be paid for their impertinence.
Meanwhile, teachers in Beaver County’s Ambridge Area School District returned to the classroom on Thursday. They went out on strike on Dec. 12. By state law, they were required to return to the job on Jan. 5.
But do remember that while parents were forced to scramble during that period and incur additional costs — think child care, particularly — teachers lost nothing. Because the commonwealth mandates a specific number of instructional days each school year, days will be tacked on to the end of the year and teachers will be paid.
One of the sticking points in the Ambridge dispute is what teachers pay for health benefits — now, $25 monthly for family coverage. That’s not the way it works in the real world; taxpayers shouldn’t pay for this continuing visit to Fantasyland.
The Record in New Jersey reports that Mountain Development Corp. recently cut down more than 100 trees in the medians between its parking lots at an office park complex. That to make way for solar panels to be outfitted atop canopies constructed over the lots.
“We had to give up something to to get something,” Michael Donohue, director of operations for the development company told the newspaper.
Now, we’re not exactly sure how to calculate this but — and given all that trees do for the environment and all of the hype and public subsidies solar receives — we have a nagging feeling the environment just might be the loser in this deal.
Breitbart reports that the French parliament has passed a formal ban on spanking children.
“France has joined a long list of countries” — 52 to be precise — “that have outlawed corporal punishment,” the new outlet reports.
But as French commentator Giulio Francomanno put it, “Life also smacks us from time to time. Will we eliminate those as well? Useless psychologists.”
And useless government. A government that bans spanking soon will be attempting to dictate every facet of parenting. It’s past time for free people to just say no.
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
