Two years ago I doubt if one in a hundred Ohioans had ever heard of the Utica Shale. A few interested souls outside the oil and gas industry know of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and New York although New York refuses to allow drilling. Then there is the Bakken Shale in North Dakota which will eventually be producing 1 million barrels of oil per day. There is also the Eagle Ford in Texas and the Haynesville in Louisiana. Then there are also the Chattanooga, the Fayetteville, the Barnett and the Huron shale. None of these shale plays have begun to reach their production potential. The latest shale play is in Kansas. The Niobrara is just beginning to see leasing activity. It is not thought to have the potential of the Utica (the Utica has awesome potential) but Chesapeake Energy has already leased 400,000 acres in south and central Kansas.
To sum it up this country is on the verge of an energy revolution. Some of the more optimistic predictions are this country has a hundred years supply of natural gas and that it has the potential to pay down the entire $15 trillion national debt just from the royalties it could derive from leasing federal land and offshore drilling areas. Almost for certain it has the ability to be the number one energy producer in the world. Now, more than ever, the country needs good political leadership. As drilling spreads to more congressional districts it will get harder to stop but in the meantime it could be stopped and strangled for decades. I'll stop short of endorsing Rick Perry for now but the country could use a candidate with his thinking and background.
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