No commercial natural gas drilling takes place in Georgia, but that hasn’t kept the industry from touting the economic benefits to the state.

The American Petroleum Institute released Tuesday a survey listing the 18,505 “jobs supported by these (fracking) activities.” Fracking refers to hydraulic fracturing, a process to extract hard-to-get oil and gas from shale fields in Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota and beyond.

The institute projects 32,000 fracking-related jobs in 2020 and 39,000 by 2035.

Gas exploration is underway near Dalton, but market prices remain too low for the gas to be sold commercially.

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Garrett Langley (fourth from left), CEO and founder of Flock Safety, and Gov. Brian Kemp join other special guests during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 2, 2025, to inaugurate a new 97,000-square-foot facility in Smyrna, Ga. This facility is intended to serve as the center for the manufacturing operations of the company’s technology safety products.
(Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

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The last Michelin Guide Awards ceremony took place at the Georgia World Congress Center on Monday, Oct 28, 2024.

Credit: Jenni Girtman