Shale-gas presentation at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, at Pat Walker Senior Center on Appleby Road at Washington Regional Medical Center campus

DEBORAH ROGERS, Financial Analyst, Invited To Discuss Shale Gas Economics Oct. 17

Messengers who bring news that people do not want to hear are often brushed aside and ignored. It took a child, who was not affected by peer pressure or ridicule to declare “the Emperor has no clothes!” When Deborah Rogers first reported her findings that the natural gas industry’s claims and their real world production numbers did not jibe, the industry tried to discredit her in an effort to draw attention away from what she said. Since that time more data and more independent reports confirm her early assumptions. Policy makers, financial advisers, and investors should be aware of natural gas boom/bust possibilities since resource extraction historically follows this pattern. The industry’s marketing campaigns claim natural gas is an energy bridge to a sustainable future. Ms. Rogers describes the economic future she sees for unconventional gas and questions the predictions of it being a hundred year supply.

Deborah Rogers is a financial analyst and founder of the Energy Policy Forum. She was appointed to the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and serves on an advisory committee within the U.S. Department of Interior. Her professional experiences in investment banking and Wall Street have prepared her for evaluating business policy and financial issues. Ms. Rogers lectures on shale gas economics throughout the U.S. and abroad at Universities, business venues and public forums. She is the author of Shale and Wall Street and has been featured in articles discussing the financial anomalies of shale gas in the New York Times, Rolling Stone Magazine, the Village Voice and London’s Guardian.

Most people have heard about the environmental problems of fracking, but do not see this directly impacting them. What is less known are the financial risks of natural gas investments and its potential to disrupt the economy and delay moving to a more sustainable energy future.

A reception to welcome Ms. Rogers will take place in the Pat Walker Senior Center on Thursday, October 17 at 6:00PM. The program will begin at 6:30PM in the auditorium. A Q&A will follow. Sponsors for this activity are the League of Women Voters of Arkansas, Ozark Headwaters Group of Sierra Club, OMNI Center, and Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light.

Internet resources on the Fayetteville Shale Play and hydraulic fracturing are here