OPINION:
It is hard to believe that just a decade ago, there was a massive backlash against fracking.
This was the technology pioneered by drillers such as Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, which unlocked access to billions of barrels of oil and natural gas trapped in thick shale rock formations.
The technology, along with horizontal drilling, revolutionized drilling and turned America into an energy powerhouse again almost overnight.
Thanks to the shale oil revolution, the United States tripled its oil output in less than 15 years, even as the Malthusian doomsayers (and then President Obama) were assuring us that we would soon be drilling the last barrel of oil on American soil.
Shale gas also helped break the back of the OPEC cartel, which, for nearly half a century, had a knife at the neck of the U.S. economy and could, by turning off the spigots, plunge the U.S. economy into a recession.
Now a study shows that fracking shale oil and gas have made America rich.
The University of California, Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas — hardly a right-wing source — has released blockbuster findings on the shale gas revolution: “It may seem like a distant memory now, but as of the mid-2000s, U.S. natural gas production had been flat for a decade, and the U.S. was importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), with plans to import much more. Then shale gas happened. Advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling caused U.S. natural gas production to increase significantly, and the U.S. went from being a net importer of natural gas to being the world’s largest exporter. We calculate that U.S. natural gas consumers have saved $3.1-$4.3 trillion between 2007 and 2025, equivalent to $164-$227 billion annually.”
That is just from the natural gas. The oil has driven up gross domestic product by hundreds of billions of dollars more.
Kathleen Hartnett White and I were sharply criticized for writing, in our 2016 book, “Fueling Freedom,” that the shale oil and gas revolution would be “the energy policy equivalent to curing cancer.”
Back then, critics warned that fracking could cause cancer — and earthquakes, toxic drinking water and floods from rising oceans. This study’s findings of trillions of dollars of benefits from fracking and horizontal drilling are sweet vindication.
The good news is that shale drilling technology keeps improving faster than the pace at which we are extracting oil and gas.
That means we are looking at another century of bountiful oil and gas.
There are multiple lessons here for policymakers. One is that new technologies are often met with scare tactics to stop their adoption. Fracking was said to pollute the drinking water and cause cancer, earthquakes and other horrors.
These risks were highly exaggerated, as we now know.
We are hearing very similar complaints today about the dangers of data centers and artificial intelligence. Those concerns should be taken seriously, but myth must be separated from reality.
It is human nature to fear the unknown and radical change, but leaps of technological progress — fracking, the internet, robotics, bioengineering, space travel, etc. — are the next frontiers of human flourishing.
If fracking had been banned by the doom-and-gloom industry, which called it a poison, we would be trillions of dollars poorer today. We would be paying closer to $10 a gallon for gas, and the Saudis and Russians would be laughing all the way to the bank.
• Stephen Moore is a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity and a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute. He is a co-author of “Fueling Freedom.”
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