From the ASSOCIATED PRESS:
A Penn State study that paints a rosy forecast on the economic potential of natural gas drilling has been greeted with skepticism from a citizens’ group and a think tank that favors a severance tax largely because the research was funded by an industry group…
The industry group, in a release on its website, has boasted that among key findings are that “safe and steady development of clean-burning natural gas” in Pennsylvania had the potential to create 212,000 new jobs over the next decade, along with thousands already created…
State Rep. David Levdansky, D-Allegheny, who favors a severance tax and a moratorium on leasing public land for gas drilling, said he was disappointed his alma mater “has chosen to serve as a facade for an industry-sponsored project … It doesn’t meet the rigorous standards of good academic research as far as I’m concerned.”
Editor’s comment: Without passing judgment on this particular matter about which we know little, it is all too common for special interests to subsidize purportedly academic work. Hungry for funding, the authors are subject to bias in favor of the sponsors.
