FRACK, BABY, FRACK: Have You Thanked Shale Today?

The shale boom is barely a decade old and it already accounts for half of American natural gas production, but according to the EIA’s newest Annual Energy Outlook, by 2040 fracking will be producing nearly 70 percent of our country’s gas. . . .

Did you catch that? We’re just two years away from becoming a net exporter of natural gas—a remarkable feat when you consider that we spent most of the last decade beefing up our liquified natural gas (LNG) import infrastructure in a quest to secure alternative methods of gas supply in the coming years. Now, those import terminals are looking like a busted bet, and we’re instead constructing export facilities to start liquifying and shipping our glut of shale gas to customers abroad. And, no surprise, it’s shale gas that’s changing the game. . . .

That’s a striking visualization of one of the quickest transformations of energy fortunes we’ve seen in decades, and it comes courtesy of the ongoing innovations of an upstart industry that continues to find new ways to make new plays profitable. The shale boom has already done so much, but as you can see, it’s not close to being done yet.

Yep.