Sarah Palin, oil expert:

Palin, or whoever writes for her, penned the following:

According to one industry study, allowing Royal Dutch Shell to tap these reserves in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort seas would create an annual average of 54,700 jobs nationwide with a $145 billion total payroll and generate an additional $193 billion a year in total revenues to local, state, and federal governments for 50 years.

Screenshot:

(fuller screenshot here)

But if you look at the study linked to, you read:

Development of resources in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska’s Arctic coast would create an average 54,700 jobs/year nationwide with a $145 billion total payroll and generate $193 billion in federal, state, and local revenue over 50 years, according to a study by Northern Economics Inc., Alaska’s largest private economic consulting firm, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research.

It's obvious that the totals are cumulative over 50 years (if it was per year, then the $145billion-payroll/54,700 jobs comes to $2.6 million a year; but $145billion/(54,700*50years) is $57K per worker per year).

Not that any of this matters these days in American politics.


posted by Quiddity at 3/16/2011 12:38:00 AM