Fracking Fairy Tales

Regular reader of this blog know that I feel extremely optimistic about the future of Ohio solely because of the Utica Shale play. If you type "utica shale" in the search box it will produce over thirty post I have written on that subject. Already Ohio's steel industry is beginning to recover due to the demand for steel that has been generated by drilling in next door Pennsylvania. Youngstown has added jobs as I reported in this post and Governor John Kasich's web site is reporting 450 new jobs at Republic Steel in Lorain. Steubenville's recovery has been so hot that
ABC's World News sent a news crew out to cover it. Nationally there are plans to build six port facilities to export natural gas and within ten years the US will be a net exporter of energy. Cheap power is the mothers milk of manufacturing. Natural gas will be used to generate electricity cheaply and with no moaning about acid rain. Once again the country will have a comparative advantage in manufacturing. Much of the midwest already has the heavy rail infrastructure in place and a workforce that knows how to get things done so it has an inside track on the industrial expansion.

Shale gas caught the environmental crowd and the Obama administration off guard. Three years ago the and two years before that, while Obama was campaigning, we heard nothing else but the millions of green jobs that would be created. The event of fracking and horizontal drilling is dealing a death blow to the green movement. They put their bets on solar, wind, and biofuels so rather than cut their financial losses and modify their thinking they are trying desperately to tank the drilling industry. They know that before you kill a dog you have to give it a bad name first. The hysteria surrounding fracking is calculated to give it a bad name so it can justifiably be killed. Jim Cramer, although an inveterate big government liberal, sees as many of us do a bright energy future. Disregard his investment advice if you like but listen to his guest's solution to the myths and so called problems associated with fracking. Also his guest puts his money where his mouth is by buying a fleet of natural gas trucks. It's so nice to hear him say that he doesn't need government help! Remember our problems are political not economic but we know how to solve both.