Report: Fracking 'Brings Breathtaking Economic, Environmental Benefits'

A new report in the Manhattan Institute publication, City Journal, says fracking “brings breathtaking economic and environmental benefits” to the places that have embraced the “shale revolution.”

James Panero catalogs powerful fracking facts, including:

• According to the federal government’s Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, by 2035, 80% of America’s domestic gas supply will come from shale and other unconventional sources.
• A 2012 study by forecasting firm HIS Global Insight found that shale oil and gas generated $87 billion in domestic capital investments; by the end of the decade, that figure is expected to jump to $172.5 billion and could reach $5.1 trillion by 2035.
• By 2025, PricewaterhouseCoopers projects lower costs of shale gas will produce 1 million domestic manufacturing jobs and tack on .5% to America’s GDP.
• Between 2012 and 2015, shale gas will save American households an average $900 annually on heating and electricity.
• From 2011 to 2012, the rise of natural gas use has reduced U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions 5.3%.
• A study by Columbia Law School’s Thomas Merrill and David Schizer concluded that “there is little evidence so far that subterranean fracturing activity can directly contaminate groundwater, and this risk may never materialize.”

Fracking facts like these may explain why the Obama Administration has quietly supported some fracking efforts amid consternation from President Barack Obama’s anti-fracking supporters. Obama even appointed as Secretary of Energy pro-fracking nuclear scientist Ernest Moniz–a man who served as the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative, which is funded by BP, Chevron, and Saudi Aramco.

Still, despite Obama’s telegraphing of the inevitability of fracking’s growth and importance, some states like New York continue to resist the industry–opposition that neighboring states like Pennsylvania are happy to exploit in the form of poaching high paying jobs and industry-generating state revenues.