Turnaround: A Model for Restoring Jobs and Economic Growth to Distressed Communities in Appalachia and Beyond

A groundbreaking set of new reports from the Ohio River Valley Institute show why natural gas development failed to bring economic prosperity to Appalachia and examine an economic development model that is already turning the economy around in one formerly distressed coal community. “Destined to Fail” identifies the causes of the natural gas industry’s failures in […]
New Report Demonstrates How RGGI Could Fund Opportunities for Pennsylvania Coal Plant Communities

The Ohio River Valley Institute’s newest report examines how the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) could support economic development and job creation in Pennsylvania, particularly in coal communities most impacted by energy market transition from coal to other energy sources. The report, Options and Opportunities for Coal Plant Communities: Pennsylvania and the Regional Greenhouse Gas […]
Options and Opportunities for Coal Plant Communities: Pennsylvania and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)

Revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) could aid coal communities facing plant closures and energy market changes. ORVI Research Fellow Joseph Cullen outlines a path forward.
Jobs and equitable transition: Bridging the chasm between rhetoric and action

There was a time when the sight of rows of office workers hammering away at their Friden adding machines would have sent me into paroxysms of delight because I, the Victor Comptometer salesman, had a new and better “programmable calculator” that could kick the Friden’s ass. I was a young 1970s college graduate entering the […]
“What’s the alternative?”: Answering the hardest question asked by workers and communities that feel threatened by energy transition

At ORVI, we’ve documented the inability of the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to serve as engines for job growth and prosperity in Appalachia. Although these findings may be greeted with doubt, disbelief, and sometimes anger, we find that, once the numbers sink in and people in the mining and fracking regions of Pennsylvania and […]
Misdirection: How we’re misled about the natural gas boom’s economic impacts

The Ohio River Valley Institute’s recent report on the nearly complete failure of the Appalachian natural gas boom to deliver on promises of jobs and prosperity in the region’s major gas-producing counties triggered a great deal of blowback from the industry and its defenders. Industry lobbyists and advocacy groups and their allies in congress castigated […]
ORVI REPORT – Appalachia’s Natural Gas Counties: How dreams of jobs and prosperity turned into almost nothing

NEW REPORT: NATURAL GAS COUNTIES’ ECONOMIES SUFFERED AS PRODUCTION BOOMED Since the start of the fracking boom, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia’s biggest gas-producing counties have seen declines in their share of jobs, income, and population February 10, 2021 (The report was updated on February 12, 2021 to correct a data transcription error that did […]
Fracking Counties Economic Impact Report

Since the start of the fracking boom, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia’s biggest gas-producing counties have seen declines in their share of jobs, income, and population.
Critical Condition: ‘The Shale Crescent’ and the Dream of an Appalachian Petrochemical Boom

Join us for an expert panel discussion on the projected future of the promised Appalachian petrochemical buildout.
Trump wants to order an economic impact study for fracking. He won’t like the results.

Tim Puko of the Wall Street Journal recently reported that President Trump is weighing an executive order to study the economic impacts of fracking. The order, if issued less than a week before election day, will be a transparent attempt to contrast the president’s boosterism of fossil fuels with former Vice President Joe Biden’s announced […]