shaleionaire

English

Alternative forms

shalionaire

Etymology

Blend of shale +‎ millionaire.

Noun

shaleionaire (plural shaleionaires)

A person who has become rich by allowing natural gas to be extracted from a shale deposit situated below land they own.
- 2012, Frank R. Spellman, Environmental Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing, CRC, published 2013, →ISBN, page 2:
  What we have here is a modern-day gold rush or, more correctly, a shale gas rush, which I have termed a shalenanza, which has created many shaleionaires (a term invented by someone else).
- 2012 November 13, “MVB Bank Looks for Internal, External Growth”, in The State Journal:
  Mazza said there are several new "shaleionaires" in North Central West Virginia, where people such as school teachers are now receiving royalty checks for as much as $60,000 a month for Marcellus Shale gas wells on their properties, he said.
- 2013 June 20, Tom Sutcliffe, “TV review: Horizon - Fracking: the New Energy Rush, BBC2Quick Cuts, BBC4”, in The Independent:
  Stewart visited a “shaleionaire”, one of the local farmers who’ve hit the shale gas lottery, and then came back here for a primer on power-supply management and energy security.
- 2015, James S. Guignard, Pedaling the Sacrifice Zone: Teaching, Writing, and Living Above the Marcellus Shale:
  Hosted by Lesley Stahl, the report interviewed Chesapeake Energy's Aubrey McClendon about the future of gas, told the story of two newly minted “shaleionaires” who lived above the shale, and questioned the Sierra Club's Michael Brune about negative environmental impacts.