In a new report released by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp, the oil and gas industry creates about 49,000 jobs in Los Angeles County and generates billions in tax revenue in California.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the study, which was commissioned by the trade group Western States Petroleum Assn., affirmed that 17,000 people are employed in oil and gas extraction, and that another 12,000 work at gas stations. Overall, the industry is credited with almost $6 billion in labor income for the county.
Moreover, the report revealed that California derived $21.6 billion in state and local tax revenues from gas and oil. The oil and gas industries combined for 468,000 jobs. This number would be substantially increased if petroleum companies are given the green light on fracking for black gold along the Monterey Shale deposit.
In a report last year, CNN claimed that California’s Monterey Shale, which runs from Los Angeles to San Francisco, is likely to contain more oil than North Dakota’s Bakken and Texas’s Eagle Ford produced. Both were part of an oil boom that created thousands of jobs and boosted U.S. oil production to the highest rate in years.
Conservationists have thus far been successful in blocking most efforts to frack in the region, claiming it will poison water supplies or create seismic disturbances.