It's no secret that the United States has an insatiable need for energy. We were the second largest energy consumer in terms of total use in 2010 and 86 percent of this energy is derived from fossil fuels. Many people see this as a grave problem, one that may even come to define our generation. President Barack Obama spells out very clearly on the White House's website that, "as we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment." But while clean energy, including such renewable energy sources as solar and wind, is likely the fuel source of our future, that future is many years away. If we truly want to grow our economy and create millions of jobs while also becoming energy independent, we must turn to natural gas for our energy needs.
Over the past couple of years, the United States has experienced the beginnings of an energy revival. This resurgence has largely been centered on the production of natural gas, which after peaking in the United States in the 1970s, had declined steadily until the 1990s, when new fields were discovered in New Mexico and Wyoming. But by 2002, natural gas production was once again on the decline and it seemed as though our nation was running out of this natural resource. When prices climbed and demand encouraged innovation, however, the industry responded. Hydraulic fracturing fracturing a rock layer with pressurized fluid in order to release the contained substances such as natural gas or petroleum was developed for widespread implementation and provided a new way to extract natural gas from previously unviable gas fields in many states.
This use of hydraulic fracturing, more commonly referred to as fracking, has already brought bountiful benefits to the United States. As extraction of this fuel has increased by over 10 percent in the United States over the last four years, natural gas prices have fallen from near $8.00 per thousand cubic feet in 2008 to around $4.00 per thousand cubic feet today. This substantial price drop has reduced the cost of heating homes and powering our TVs and iPads. The boom that accompanied the implementation of fracking in the United States has allowed North Dakota to decrease its unemployment rate to just 3.5 percent and even allowed that state to run a budget surplus, something impossible to imagine on a national scale. But it is indeed possible to replicate this within the country as a whole, if we can responsibly take advantage of this natural resource.
It is important, through all this, to remember that fracking does have very serious issues associated with its use. These include concerns about the contamination of drinking water and the continuation of fossil fuel burning. Natural gas actually burns quite cleanly, however, releasing as little as 50 percent of the carbon emissions, which is less than one third as many nitrogen oxides and about 1 percent of the amount of sulfur oxides as coal plants emit. If we turned more to natural gas for our energy needs, we could actually cut our emissions of greenhouse gases.
It is important to acknowledge, however, that potentially contaminating drinking water is a serious problem associated with fracking. Over the past seven years, many studies have been conducted on the effects of fracking, most of which found increased levels of methane and radioactive materials in water sources in areas surrounding fracking sites. Congress asked the Environmental Protection Agency to reanalyze the practice after the agency released a narrowly conducted 2004 study that concluded that there was "no unequivocal evidence" of health risks. Pending the results of this new, broader study by the EPA, we should be more certain of the environmental dangers of hydraulic fracturing, and implement the practice accordingly.
Ultimately, there are potential benefits and drawbacks to allowing the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing in the United States. But I urge people to remember that while our economy remains on its knees and unemployment stubbornly hovers above 9 percent, we are standing right above a natural resource that offers fewer emissions, more energy security and numerous economic benefits. Natural gas, removed responsibly from shale, will spur our economy out of recession and lead the United States to energy independence.
