Fracking saved U.S. economy

The fracking revolution has been a major boon for the U.S. economy, and the switch from coal to natural gas has dramatically reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Hydraulic fracking over the last decade has allowed American crude production to soar from less than 5 million barrels per day (bpd) to 9.2 million bpd. Natural gas production also jumped from 51 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2005 to 77.9 bcfd at the end of 2014. All of this has been accompanied by a 10-percent fall in greenhouse gas emissions. IHS Research credited hydraulic fracking as the “shovel-ready jobs” that lifted America out of the Great Recession by a direct and indirect 1.7 million increase in employment. The 70-percent crash in natural gas prices from $7.59 in 2006 to $2.83 mcf today allowed manufacturing to expand faster than the economy for the first time since the 1980s.