[pm90]

It was always rather transparent that the "jobs" angle was a play by big oil to stoke populism for an objectively unpopular agenda (i.e. more drilling, extraction pollution). Once automation removes the need for low skilled laborers I would think this tactic would not be available anymore (but who knows, in this era of alternative facts).

[cestith]

Lots of jobs in gas and oil are very highly skilled jobs. Automating the stuff that's high paying because it's risky, dirty, and far from the workers' homes will increase pay imbalances as the software developers, automation folks, sysadmins, robotics engineers, mechanical engineers, petroleum engineers, geologists, executives, et al will continue to get their pay and probably more while anyone automated away who doesn't retrain will make far less in another role.