Wall Street Journal: “They Are Basking in America’s Oil Boom—and Preparing for the Big Bust”
RFF Fellow Daniel Raimi is quoted in this article about the changing economic conditions in Lea County, New Mexico.
Analysts are now beginning to project what could be the ultimate, slow-motion bust after US shale peaks and producers increasingly look elsewhere to drill. A shift away from fossil-fuel production—the speed of which could hinge on November’s election—has inspired warnings that America’s oil patch might follow coal country’s footsteps down a long road of disinvestment.
“In Appalachia, the coal economy has been declining for decades,” said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at the research institution Resources for the Future, who studies fossil-fuel communities. “It has resulted in really entrenched poverty and really big problems.”
