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American Natural Gas

By Joshua Becker and Aaron Block
March 28, 2012

There are trillions of cubic feet of natural gas locked deep beneath the United States. Much of this gas is so-called “shale gas,” which is essentially trapped in shale formations a mile or more below the ground. Key deposits are in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, massive formations underlying much of Pennsylvania, New York and neighboring states, and in the Barnett Shale in Texas. There are significant production and exploration operations in many other states as well.

Although techniques for unlocking shale gas have been available for decades, recent economic and technological factors have made it possible to extract this domestic energy source efficiently on a massive scale. This game-changing energy source holds the promise of American jobs and American energy security.

But to critics, this energy source may be associated with potential environmental hazards, which has predictably spawned a growing trend of litigation and regulatory scrutiny around the country. Most of these critics focus in particular on a widely used technique for unlocking this trapped resource: hydraulic fracturing, which some call “fracking.” Hydraulic fracturing has been safely used more than a million times, but misinformation about the practice is widespread. Below, we explain the hydraulic fracturing process and the litigation that it has generated. We also offer some thoughts about what the future is likely to look like for shale gas production.

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