English

Alternative forms

• shalionaire

Noun

shaleionaire ‎(plural shaleionaires)

1. 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 (2013), ISBN 9781466514683, 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, "MVB Bank Looks for Internal, External Growth", The State Journal, 13 November 2012:

     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, Tom Sutcliffe, "TV review: Horizon - Fracking: the New Energy Rush, BBC2Quick Cuts, BBC4", The Independent, 20 June 2013:

     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.