Shale gas extraction is made possible by fracking, which environmental groups foolishly opposed. The shale gas boom was good for the environment, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by providing cheap natural gas to replace dirtier sources of energy.
A new study confirms the benefit of the shale gas boom: “Our findings indicate that the shale gas boom reduced average U.S. annual green house gas emissions per capita by 7.5%.
The study is by professors David Lindequist and Samuel Selent of Miami University. The abstract of their study explains,
Since the mid-2000s, hydraulic fracturing (’fracking’) has significantly altered the U.S. energy landscape through a surge in shale gas production. Employing synthetic control methods, we evaluate the effect of the shale gas boom on U.S. emissions and various energy metrics. We find that the boom reduced average annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions per capita by roughly 7.5%. Drawing on the existing literature on the environmental impact of shale gas, we decompose this overall treatment effect into changes in the fossil fuel mix (the substitution effect), changes in the speed of the transition to non-fossil energy sources (the transition effect), and changes in overall energy consumption (the consumption effect). Our results indicate that the estimated treatment effect is attributable to an energy mix in which natural gas replaces coal, an accelerated transition to renewable energies, and a decrease in energy consumption, largely driven by decreases in energy intensity. Our findings highlight the role of shale gas as a ’bridge fuel’ for the U.S. economy between 2007 and 2019, an energy source facilitating the transition from carbon-intensive fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.
Fracking saves lives. “The fracking revolution, by reducing heating costs for poor families in the US, saved about 12,500 lives annually, mostly in places with concentrated poverty,” notes journalist Dylan Matthews, citing a study by three researchers. As the study explains,
The price of home heating affects mortality in the United States. Exposure to cold is one reason that mortality peaks in winter, and a higher heating price increases exposure to cold by reducing heating use. Our empirical approach combines spatial variation in the energy source used for home heating and temporal variation in the national prices of natural gas and electricity. We find that a lower heating price reduces winter mortality, driven mostly by cardiovascular and respiratory causes. Our estimates imply that the 42% drop in the natural gas price in the late 2000s, mostly driven by the shale gas boom, averted 12,500 deaths per year in the United States. The effect appears to be especially large in high-poverty communities….lower heating prices reduce mortality in winter months….the 42% drop in the price of natural gas in the late 2000s averted 12,500 winter deaths per year….this effect does not just represent a short-run postponement of mortality. We also show that the effect, which is driven mostly by cardiovascular and respiratory causes and is larger in high-poverty communities, is robust to several stress tests of the empirical specification.
Fracking adds 7.7 million jobs and $1.1 trillion to the U.S. economy, according to an Energy Department report. It remains unpopular with the Democratic Party’s progressive base, though. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” said Kamala Harris in 2019.
Fracking might also be useful for obtaining geothermal energy. “New experiments in the deserts of Utah and Nevada show how advances in fracking—technology developed by the oil industry—can be repurposed to tap clean geothermal energy anywhere on Earth,” reports Wired. It may soon become possible to drill deep into the Earth to get lots of geothermal energy. That would reduce the need to rely on fossil fuels, wind, and solar power (which would be good, because fossil fuels lead to global warming, wind energy kills many birds, and solar farms generate lots of toxic waste. A Google-owned solar farm incinerates a thousand birds every year).
Wired tells the story of Buzz Speyrer, a drilling engineer with a long career in oil and gas, who is drilling deep into the Earth in Utah — so far, about two miles deep. He chose an area where temperatures reach 450 degrees less than two miles below the surface.
