U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, can be forgiven for his enthusiasm over a recent report. After all, the good news being proclaimed by the Ohio Natural Energy Institute’s “The Essential Facts on Essential Ohio Energy” are a repolished version of the shiny proclamations we’ve been hearing for about 15 years now.

Rulli was first elected to the state Senate in 2018. But well before that, organizations similar to the Ohio Natural Energy Institute were touting (then the Marcellus and Utica shales) as our region’s savior.

“Our region has been blessed with an extraordinary opportunity — one that could define our future for generations,” Rulli said just last week. “The oil and gas industry is a game-changer.”

Yes. We were told this was a generation-defining game-changer back then, too.

And while there are lots of numbers for the authors of agenda-driven reports to throw around, we don’t have the full picture until we add some others.

For example, Mahoning and Trumbull counties are in the top 10 of natural gas production for 2023, according to the report.

Mahoning County has a poverty rate of 16.5% and an unemployment rate of 6.3%, while Trumbull County has a poverty rate of 17.6% and an unemployment rate of 6.6%.

Belmont and Jefferson counties are first and second in the state for natural gas production. They have poverty rates of 13% and 19% and unemployment rates of 6.8% and 6.9%, respectively.

Washington County is 14th in Ohio for natural gas production. It has a poverty rate of 15.9% and unemployment at 6.3%.

The national average poverty rate is approximately 11.1%. Unemployment nationally is 4.1%.

What gives?

“(In) our own backyard, we have the power to fuel economic growth and create high-paying jobs for years to come,” Rulli said.

Maybe. But Ohioans have been given no reason to believe this year’s renewed cheerleading from industry groups is any different from earlier versions.

In fact, Ohio Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, is right to point out the growing demand for what is pulled out of the ground beneath us is actually pressuring budgets for Buckeye State families.

“We’re already beginning to see consumers starting to feel the squeeze because our demand projections are astronomical,” Fischer said. “If we continue to see this demand outpacing supply, we’re going to be even more dependent on importing from other states, and those other states are also feeling similar squeezes to Ohio.”

Something about the process is broken. Extraction industry corporations continue to profit from the billions of dollars worth of resources in Ohio without residents seeing the benefit they have been assured (over and over again) is just over the horizon. Rulli and others who understand the industry COULD be a game-changer for the Buckeye State had better get to work on figuring out how to make sure this time, it is.