The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

In practical terms, that means money flowing into paychecks throughout the country. By 2019, the unconventional revolution was already supporting over 2.8 million jobs.* There were jobs in and around oil and gas fields, manufacturing jobs in the Midwest making equipment and trucks and pipes, jobs in California writing software and managing data, and jobs generated by increased income and spending, like real estate agents and car dealers. What is striking is that, owing to the linkages, the economic impact was felt across virtually all states. This was true even in New York state, where environmental activists and politicians succeeded in getting the state to ban hydraulic fracturing and prevent a new natural gas pipeline that would have carried inexpensive natural gas from the Marcellus in Pennsylvania to gas-short New England. The lack of new pipelines resulted in a prohibition in 2019 on gas hookups for new housing and small businesses in Westchester County, just north of New York City. Yet even New York registered over forty thousand jobs that were supporting shale activity in other states.