What the Frack?

Have you ever heard of fracking? It isn't a euphemism for something unmentionable on a family blog like mine. It is the name for a process used to release natural gas from once-thought-unprofitable deposits.

While at a meeting a few weeks ago, I heard an industry expert explain how a significant investment in improving the nation's natural gas infrastructure could significantly reduce our reliance on petroleum. This would have a tremendous impact on our economic and national security.

The method is not without its detractors, but as this WSJ editorial explains, the potential benefits appear to justify them.

The question for the rest of us is whether we are serious about domestic energy production. All forms of energy have risks and environmental costs, not least wind (noise and dead birds and bats) and solar (vast expanses of land). Yet renewables are nowhere close to supplying enough energy, even with large subsidies, to maintain America's standard of living. The shale gas and oil boom is the result of U.S. business innovation and risk-taking. If we let the fear of undocumented pollution kill this boom, we will deserve our fate as a second-class industrial power.

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