Sean O’Leary is a senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute where he studies energy, petrochemicals, and economic development. He is the author of three reports on the economic impacts of natural gas development in Appalachia as well as a report on how a declining coal town in Washington state reversed its fortunes by embracing clean energy transition. Sean is a native of Wheeling, West Virginia.
If you’re looking for economic development that will deliver job growth, increase local commerce, and improve quality of life, you can’t do much worse than natural gas extraction, gas-fired power plants, and infrastructure. They don’t provide many jobs and they impose serious costs that discourage other kinds of job-creating economic activity. Apart from contributing to […]
