ecological-economic context

What are the full costs of investing in natural gas drilling, production, and transmission? This report seeks to identify some of the “hidden costs,” those that usually do not have price tags attached.
​Other studies already completed or underway may provide some of the needed information to establish the full costs of unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) in Maryland, but key information gaps remain. To help fill these gaps, this report focuses on certain external costs, costs not borne by industry and therefore not included in the pricing structure of the product, of Maryland’s existing and potential natural gas system. 

Key Findings

Costs from drilling in Garrett County Maryland, based on either a 25% or 75% extraction scenario, total between $17.9 and $107.1 million (the total does not include ecosystem services foregone during pipeline construction, which are a one-time cost, not a cost that recurs annually). Other costs estimated in the report include public health effects, motor vehicle accidents, road damage, the social cost of carbon, and ecosystem services foregone.

• Public health effects from potential excess asthma exacerbation and low birth weight children range annually between $3,3o9 to $6,712.
• Motor vehicle accidents due to higher traffic volume in Garrett County would total $922,502 annually.
• Road damage from the high volume of heavy trucks and other drilling related motor activity would range from $3.9 to $17.9 million in the 25% extraction scenario and $12.1 to $55.5 million in the 75% extraction scenario.
• The social cost of carbon, or the measure of economic harm from every additional emission of one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, would range from $12 million for the 25% extraction scenario to $36.3 million for the 75% extraction scenario.
• Ecosystem services foregone would total $808, 722 for the 25% extraction scenario, $14.1 million for the 75% extraction scenario, $517,152 in the short-term for the construction period of the Columbia pipeline, and $264,199 per year for the Columbia pipeline's permanent right of way.

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outcomes 

On April 7th, 2017, Governor Larry Hogan signed legislation to permanently ban hydraulic fracturing in Maryland.

the region

The geographic focus for our study is selective: on Garrett County, where we estimate costs associated
with potential natural gas drilling; on the area surrounding the Dominion Transmission
compressor station near Myersville, and on the area directly impacted by the Columbia
pipeline

Resources

Technical Report detailing a 25% and 75% gas extraction scenarios in Garrett County, Maryland and a subset of costs that would accrue.

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 “I feel like if fracking comes to our neighborhood ... we will no longer be able to stay there because it would be very unhealthy. I don’t feel like I’d have the integrity to be able to feel good about my product that I was selling.”
—Katharine Dubansky, Owner of an 106-acre organic Backbone Food Farm in Garrett County

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see also

Marcellus Shale Region | Counting Pipeline Costs