New Research Paper Says Fracking Saved Over 60,000 American Lives Over 6-Winter Period
From the Orange County Register:
Fracking helped save the lives of roughly 11,000 Americans each winter from 2005 to 2010, according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper.
How? By driving down energy prices and helping them affordably heat their homes.
Demographers have long observed that low-income people die at higher rates during the winter months. This “excess winter mortality” has a simple, heartbreaking cause — people keep their dwellings uncomfortably cold to reduce their heating bills. Constant exposure to chilly temperatures makes it more likely that people will contract and succumb to respiratory and heart disease.
Many low-income Americans also skimp on food and health care to afford their heating bills. Thirty-one percent of households struggle to pay energy bills. About 17 percent of U.S. households spend more than 10 percent of their total income on energy costs, mostly on heating.Read on by clicking here.