Last updated on 2013.06.03
My weekend reading juxtaposed the following articles:
The Rapid City Journal ran a batch of articles discussing the impact of the Bakken oil boom on western South Dakota. Barbara Soderlin finds GCC Dacotah Cement in Rapid City trucking cement daily to Williston and Adams ISC hauling equipment all the way down from the North Dakota oil fields to its Rapid City shops for repair. Adams ISC boss Duff Kruse says the Bakken boom will allow him to double his staff over the next three years.
Rapid City economic developers are hoping to cash in on all aspects of the oil boom, from housing for commuting workers, recreation, auxiliary services, and even housing for North Dakota refugees who want to get away from the hectic economic growth in the hometowns they are being priced out of. "Energy is going to be big for us," says Rapid City Economic Development Partnership president Ben Snow. "...Hopefully we make some new friends in the energy business who want to play with us."
Meanwhile, Thomas Friedman publishes this curious result of a study on natural resource exploitation and academic achievement:
A team from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., has just come out with a fascinating little study mapping the correlation between performance on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, exam — which every two years tests math, science and reading comprehension skills of 15-year-olds in 65 countries — and the total earnings on natural resources as a percentage of G.D.P. for each participating country. In short, how well do your high school kids do on math compared with how much oil you pump or how many diamonds you dig?
The results indicated that there was a "a significant negative relationship between the money countries extract from national resources and the knowledge and skills of their high school population," said Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the PISA exams for the O.E.C.D. "This is a global pattern that holds across 65 countries that took part in the latest PISA assessment." Oil and PISA don't mix [Thomas Friedman, "Pass the Books, Hold the Oil," New York Times, 2012.03.11].
So, the more you base your GDP on oil, natural gas, coal, mining, and forestry, the less your kids achieve on standardized tests. Fascinating!
I'm not ready to take this as an argument to shut down the Bakken or to turn their trucks around at the South Dakota border. The data show plenty of countries, like Norway and Canada, that are able to exploit their lucky pools of oil and invest that money in solid education systems. And our kids still need electricity to power their reading lamps and laptops.
Still, this OECD study fits with familiar work that finds over-reliance on natural resource exploitation may have deleterious cultural effects. Past work has shown that reliance on oil and other extractive industries erodes democracy. Friedman's and the OECD's interesting point is that countries that don't have the good luck of sitting on top of fuel to burn have to use their wits more to figure out how to raise and sustain their standards of living. And if we do strike oil or enjoy other natural blessings, we must studiously avoid falling into a laggardly reliance on such finite wealth and reinvest our current windfall on long-term social and economic improvements.
...the experience of almost all oil-exporting countries to date illustrates few of these benefits. To the contrary, the consequences of oil-led development tend to be negative, including slower than expected growth, barriers to economic diversification, poor social welfare performance, and high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Furthermore, countries dependent on oil as their major resource for development are characterized by exceptionally poor governance and high corruption, a culture of rent-seeking, often devastating economic, health and environmental consequences at the local level, and high incidences of conflict and war. In sum, countries that depend on oil for their livelihood eventually become among the most economically troubled, the most authoritarian, and the most conflict-ridden in the world [Terry L. Karl, "Oil-Led Development: Social, Political, and Economic Consequences," Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law Working Papers, January 2007, Number 80].
North Dakota's governor is an earth hater: expect OSHA to be blinded. Red states kill more workers: Wyoming and Montana kill the most.
http://mtstandard.com/news/state-and-regional/article_9e84b386-70dc-11e0-b1de-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-w-gerard/dying-for-work_b_1338052.html
Friedman is referencing a report that talks about nations where they get a large percentage of their GDP from net exports of raw natural materials. Since the US is an net importer of oil and petroleum derivatives, we have a long ways to go as in maybe 100 times more oil production (we only need 5 times more to be energy self-sufficient) until the comments here would apply to the US.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/12/442461/coal-power-drops-below-40-of-us-electricity-lowest-in-33-years/?mobile=nc
This post shows how critical thinking without truth creates stupidity. That is the real cause of dysfunctional education. Cory, you need to be careful with cause and effect. Want to know what caused, "countries dependent on oil as their major resource for development are characterized by exceptionally poor governance and high corruption, a culture of rent-seeking, often devastating economic, health and environmental consequences at the local level, and high incidences of conflict and war"? In South America it is captitalists and missionaires in bed with the government:
http://www.cephas-library.com/church_n_state_rockefeller_and_evangelism.html
Which post, Steve: Cory's or the one to which you linked? Ambiguous antecedents are the leading causes of the New Age Theocracy.
Cory's post. The link brings the truth.
trvth: it's not just for theocons anymore.
Larry, I think you would like the research I provided.
You think many things that this interested party abandoned thirty years ago, Steve.
Btw: you want a real challenge? Go here.
Indeed, Troy, and I recognize that the data do not point to solid causation or extrapolation. I do wonder, though: might we see this effect replicated at a subnational level? Might we see similar phenomena separating an oil-rich North Dakota from an oil-less Vermont?
Good question but I do not think so. It didn't occur in the oil fields of Oklahoma/Texas. The context of what he refers to is a single product that becomes the essence of society. North Dakota will still be in the US.
What are the educational stats in Alaska, Cory? They're pretty much a net energy exporter, aren't they?
Yup. Not so hot...
http://www.adn.com/2008/05/07/398390/alaskas-bent-learning-curve.html
Excerpt:
"The oil and gas industry generates an overwhelming majority of Alaska’s general fund revenues. In FY 2009, the state collected $5.18 billion in revenues from the oil industry, accounting for 88.8 percent of Alaska’s unrestricted general fund revenues. Revenue officials forecast FY 2010 revenue at $5.03 billion and FY 2011 revenues are forecasted to reach $4.65 billion – 88 percent of unrestricted revenues. Oil revenues pay for the state’s education system, transportation infrastructure, public health and safety services and a host of other programs throughout Alaska. Alaska’s offshore waters and onshore prospects hold the potential to fuel the state’s economy for decades and to play a key role in ensuring America has the energy it needs until alternative sources become available on a large scale."
http://www.akrdc.org/issues/oilgas/overview.html
And yet, gasoline in Alaska is currently over $4.00 a gallon.
http://www.andrewhalcro.com/why_are_gas_prices_so_high_in_alaska
What a mess, huh?
Kinda related: 27,000 kids wounded on US farms every year:
http://pthealthsupportnetwork.com/Kids-and-Parenting/farm-hazards-a-serious-threat-to-kids-study-finds
http://wildfiretoday.com/2012/03/12/red-flag-warnings-for-tuesday/
Cory, we have more problems than worrying about oil and education. I wonder if we could somehow take all of your energy and direct it to fixing schools on the reservations.
Larry, dang it, there you go again, questioning the immunity of agriculture from the rules all other industries are expected to follow.
I will say, though, that when I first read Friedman's article, I wondered if maybe the same apparent problem could come from reliance on industries like farming, or even from reliance on natural resources like wind and solar power.
Mr.Friedman is half right, most citizens of OPEC nations are uneducated and poverty stricken. However, the ruling elite who run those countries by force, are wealthy beyond measure. All thanks too oil!
Fleming, gas in Silicon Valley is $4.75 a gallon. Even those eggheads can't lower gas.
Thad, exactly. It blows me away that people blame the president for the price of gas. I suppose if Mars candy doubles the price of M&M's that would be the presidents fault too, right? LOL.
Does the Glenn Beck crowd give President Obama credit for rising gold prices?
...which then makes me wonder about the comparative academic achievement of kids in communities that derive their wealth from gold-mining....
Giago: Thune and Noem turning their backs on Lakota KXL resistance.
Officials warning cyclists to stay away from oil patch:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120328/NEWS01/120328003/1002/news01