Vast reserves of natural gas and oil unlocked from underground shale deposits have slashed the price of U.S. natural gas to a fraction of costs in Europe and Asia, making it some of the cheapest energy in the world.
That is cutting production costs at U.S. factories, making 'Made in America' a more attractive option and driving investment in everything from foundries to chemical plants.
The shale energy revolution could also turn the United States into a net exporter of many fuels in little more than a decade, transforming energy from the economy's Achilles' heel to a source of strength.
Good thing that not everybody bought the line we hear over and over from the environmental left that any individual energy find would be too small to matter, and so should not be approved. A funny thing about the real world is that a whole lot of separate energy discoveries add up to something that is, to borrow an expression, "a big effing deal."
Yet the reality-based community still thinks that windmills are our energy future.
Even old fashioned crude is out there. Kudos to the president for approving this project (tip to Instapundit). He acts like he is in the pocket of the anti-energy environmentalists yet can do something good like this. There is a randomness that is unsettling. You can see why business uncertainty exists these days. Who knows what direction this White House will go in on any given day?
And don't think this won't shake up international affairs. The Islamic world has a limited time to get their house in order before we just don't have to give a damn about how badly they mis-manage their own affairs in the Middle East and focus on quarantining their hateful ideologies rather than curing them.
