AI-driven economic growth is exposing investment and GDP growth as misleading measures of prosperity and as misguided goals for local economic development strategies.
The Appalachianization of America’s Economy
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Sean O'Leary
Sean O’Leary, senior researcher, energy and petrochemicals, is a native of Wheeling, WV. He has written about coal, natural gas, and their role in the economies of Appalachia in a book, a newspaper column, and blog titled, “The State of My State”. Previously, Sean served as communications director at the NW Energy Coalition in Seattle, Washington.
All research:
Why Data Centers Will Be Economic Development Duds
Data centers are highly capital intensive, non-labor intensive enterprises that create few jobs & inject little money into host communities.
Frackalachia Update 2025
New gas development for data centers and LNG is “destined to disappoint” as Appalachia’s fracking counties continue their economic spiral.
Misleading and Just Plain Wrong
The central claim of the Heritage Foundation's special report that, because of New York’s ban on fracking, counties in the Marcellus region “lost out on around $11,000 per resident or $27,000 per household” is simply wrong. Why? Because . . . Very little of...
A Month from Hell
Key Points Northern Appalachia has, for a decade and a half, premised its economic development strategies on a strategic triad of natural gas, petrochemicals, and most recently hydrogen. Natural gas expansion has proven itself incapable of delivering on promises of...
Load Growth Fever, LNG, and the Risk of Higher Electric Rates
Meeting load growth forecasts with new natural gas generation could cause double-digit hikes in the price of electricity.
Is The ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub Coming Apart? Sure Looks Like it.
Development of the ARCH2 hydrogen hub is unraveling due to high costs, uncertain demand, inexperienced project developers, and uneconomic applications.
Carbon Capture: Description, History, Effectiveness, & Cost
An Overview For nearly a century carbon capture technologies have been used by the oil refining industry to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from other marketable gasses. Then, in the 1970’s oil producers began injecting carbon dioxide into declining oil wells to boost...
Tipping Point
Key Takeaways: Carbon capture & sequestration (CCS) is a still unproven and spectacularly expensive decarbonization technology that may have value in industrial sectors that have no other viable decarbonization options. The power generating sector is a very...