Hydraulic Fracturing Good for Taxpayers and a Key Component to Energy Independence

Energy independence and production has an impact on taxpayers, families, consumers, and small business owners. How America produces energy, the kinds of energy that are used, and where the United States receives imported energy resources from can all be linked together and have a collective effect on the economy and American citizens. And, an improving economy helps taxpayers with more people employed (fewer unemployment benefits) and increased tax revenue.  One controversial area of how to improve the economy is Hydraulic Fracturing (aka fracking).

Fracking is a way of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. This process makes it possible to produce natural gas extraction were it may have been unreachable in the past with conventional procedures and technologies. There has been a fierce debate amongst many on both sides of the issue and as the technology becomes more commonplace the debate will grow.

Letting the market dictate winners and losers is the best approach to make energy more affordable and more abundant. Fracking is one aspect of that approach and the economic impact is quite revealing.  For example,  according to a report from IHS Global Insights, 1.7 million new jobs will be created by fracking, injecting billions of dollars into several state economies. Paul Driessen, a senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), described the global implications of these economic benefits in an op-ed on Townhall.com

“In the process, fracking has revived America’s petrochemical, steel and other manufacturing industries and reinvigorated American ingenuity and economic competitiveness. One shudders to think how awful the US unemployment, part-time employment and economic picture would be in its absence… This game-changing technology has also transformed US, EU and global political equations and power structures. With the United States, Argentina, Britain, China, Israel and many other countries collectively sitting atop centuries’ worth of now economically producible oil and natural gas, OPEC and Russia can no longer control prices and threaten customer nations. For poor developing countries, natural gas from shale provides fuel to generate abundant, affordable electricity that will transform lives.”

The debate has seen some strange bedfellows as Marita Noon of CFACT highlighted three noteworthy examples of both current and former Obama Administration officials who came to the defense of fracking:

• During a speech in Columbus, Ohio, former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said that fracking “is something you can do in a safe way” and dismissed a study critical of fracking by saying: “we didn’t think it was credible.”
• At the Domenici Public Policy conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico, former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stated: “I would say to everybody that hydraulic fracking is safe.”
• In a meeting with the New York Daily News editorial board, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz asserted: “fracking for natural gas is climate-friendly, environmentally safe, and economically stimulating” and added: “Which is just what America and New York need.”

How the government will proceed with fracking and the overall question of energy independence is unknown at the moment. With the Keystone XL Pipeline in limbo, a real question as to whether the Renewable Fuel Standard will be scrapped, the seeming end of the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit, and potential new EPA action on Hydraulic Fracturing; energy issues are going to be at the forefront of public discussion in 2014. The way in which these issues are resolved with have a direct impact on taxpayers, consumers, and small businesses.