by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As Appearing on RealClear Energy
Bernie Sanders just introduced a bill to ban fracking on federal lands. Consider what would and would not happen if anti-frackers like Sanders had their way.
Fracking has been an energy game changer, if not a miracle. Before large-scale fracking began in the late 2000s, the United States was anything but energy independent. The vast majority of our natural gas was imported. The price of gasoline was subject to the whims of the OPEC cartel and the price swings of oil. Fracking has totally changed this.
In August 2005, a shortage of natural gas pushed the Henry Hub price to $19.19 per million cubic feet. Andrew Liveris, then CEO Dow Chemical told the New York Times in 2005 that, “American consumers worry about oil and the price of gasoline.They should worry that there may not be enough natural gas to heat and cool their homes.”
But within just a few years the development and fracking technology exposed a virtual glut of natural gas, pushing the price down to about $2.00 per million cubic feet today. We no longer import natural gas except where environmentalists force imports by blocking pipelines.
