shaleionaire
n. A person who owns land that sits over a shale deposit and has become rich by leasing that land to a company that extracts natural gas from the shale.
Also Seen As
Etymology
Examples
2014
Increased sales reflect spending by landowners with leasing bonuses — dubbed "shaleionaires" in the report — and out-of-state workers paying hotel and restaurant bills.
—Bob Downing, “Akron area starting to feel economic benefits of Ohio’s Utica drilling, study says,” Akron Beacon Journal, January 10, 2014
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.
—Tom Sutcliffe, “TV review: Horizon — Fracking: the New Energy Rush, BBC2,” The Independent, June 20, 2013
2012
Along the coast it's easy to spot the effects of America's oil and gas renaissance in new hotels built in the past five years (many of them now populated by itinerant oilfield workers), in the multiplying numbers of overnight "shale-ionaires," in rising home values, expanding car and truck dealerships, and effectively full employment.
—Richard Martin, “America's energy job machine is heating up,” Fortune, April 12, 2012
2010 (earliest)
What's brought about the change is that there's a new, unconventional process for extracting natural gas from shale, a dense rock formation two miles undergound. And if you're sitting on top of it, you may become a new American phenomenon: a shaleionaire.
—“Shaleionaires” (video), 60 Minutes, November 14, 2010
Notes