This is a great article on the shale gas/oil revolution we are currently experiencing in the US.: WSJ.com – Opinion: The Facts About Fracking. This revolution has the potential to meaningfully reduce our dependence on foreign oil that comes from sources that really don’t like us but love our money. It dwarfs ethanol, solar, wind and any other supposedly green energy technology. Notably, natural gas a very clean burning fuel. This Revolution has the potential to satisfy both business and environmental interests. According to the WSJ:
As recently as 2000, shale gas was 1% of America’s gas supplies; today it is 25%. Prior to the shale breakthrough, U.S. natural gas reserves were in decline, prices exceeded $15 per million British thermal units, and investors were building ports to import liquid natural gas. Today, proven reserves are the highest since 1971, prices have fallen close to $4 and ports are being retrofitted for LNG exports.” Unfortunately and almost inexplicably (although perhaps not surprisingly), instead of getting on board with this environmentally clean burning fuel that we have in abundance domestically, special interest groups are doing all they can to cripple this potentially transforming technology. As the article notes: “The U.S. is in the midst of an energy revolution, and we don’t mean solar panels or wind turbines. A new gusher of natural gas from shale has the potential to transform U.S. energy production—that is, unless politicians, greens and the industry mess it up.
This article is well worth reading as it lays out and discusses each of the arguments against shale gas/oil. For the coming generation, this article is critical. Read the full article here