Poll: PA Voters Support Fracking Regulations

Residents mostly OK with gas industry, but want more oversight

By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service
The Tube City Almanac
October 16, 2024
Posted in: State & Region

(Source: Ohio River Valley Institute/Upswing Research & Strategy)

Southwestern Pennsylvania is a major U.S. hotspot for natural gas production through fracking, but new polling reveals overwhelming public support for tighter industry oversight.

More than four out of 10 Pennsylvanians told pollsters they’d support an outright ban on fracking.

Sean O'Leary, senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, said the poll was conducted to assess voters’ attitudes toward the fracking industry. Multiple questions were asked about what could be done to minimize or reduce some of the impacts of fracking.

“And what we found was that, across the board, across a variety of different measures,” said O'Leary, “more than 90 percent of all Pennsylvanians supported increased efforts in those regards.”

The poll was conducted by Upswing Research & Strategy among 700 likely voters across Pennsylvania. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percent.

Support for fracking was strongest in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, with about 50 percent of Allegheny County residents and 69 percent of residents of outlying counties voicing support for fracking, compared with only 31 percent of Philadelphia-area residents.

The survey concluded that 86 percent of Pennsylvanians are concerned about water pollution, and 82 percent about air pollution. Nearly eight out of 10 said they worry about the effects of pollution on the health of their families.

According to the survey, 43 percent said they believe fracking has a negative impact on air and water quality, and 58 percent of Pennsylvanians surveyed said they distrust fracking companies to self-report environmental and public health impacts of their industry.

O’Leary pointed to a recent University of Pittsburgh study that found significant health risks associated with living near fracking sites.

Voters in Pennsylvania are still generally supportive of the natural gas industry, O’Leary said, but he argued that’s the result of what he called “a widespread misunderstanding” that fracking is vital to Pennsylvania’s economy.

He argued that fracking has actually led to a net loss of jobs and population in some counties, causing significant economic loss to these regions.

O’Leary said said early industry-funded studies predicted fracking would create around 250,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. But, he said, recent data show it’s been fewer than 20,000, or less than one-percent of the state’s total workforce.

"The other thing that I think a lot of people are not aware of is that in Pennsylvania, in just the last four years, the fracking industry has laid off 40 percent of its workforce,” said O’Leary. “Four out of every 10 workers in fracking have lost their jobs.”

Danielle M. Smith is a producer for Public News Service, where this story first appeared. An award-winning radio journalist/personality with more than a decade of experience in broadcast media, she is a former audio journalist with American Urban Radio Networks and Sheridan Broadcasting Networks who also hosts a weekly community affairs show “Good News” on WGBN (1360 AM/98.9 FM).

Originally published October 16, 2024.

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