FRACKING – are you scared yet?

Well there is no need to be scared.

Fracking is the latest environmental scare the left has trotted out to stop efforts to tap American deposits of natural gas and oil. While Civitas has blogged on this before, The Wall Street Journal on June 25th had an excellent editorial on the subject.

“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.

Only a decade ago Texas oil engineers hit upon the idea of combining two established technologies to release natural gas trapped in shale formations. Horizontal drilling—in which wells turn sideways after a certain depth—opens up big new production areas. Producers then use a 60-year-old technique called hydraulic fracturing—in which water, sand and chemicals are injected into the well at high pressure—to loosen the shale and release gas (and increasingly, oil).

The resulting boom is transforming America’s energy landscape. 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….”

The editorial goes on to debunk a number of left wings myths and untruths about fracking and talk about what is happening as a result of this innovation in energy exploration. Prices dropping, imports plummeting while exports go up and jobs being created. This really does sound like end of the world stuff doesn’t it? And natural gas is “cleaner” than coal or oil. But the left doesn’t let facts get in the way of the fight to take us all back to the days of huddling around the fire to stay warm. Or I guess today we would huddle around the solar panel or windmill.