Drill Baby Drill

A drilling crew move a section of steel pipe at a natural gas well site near Bradford, Pennsylvania...

A drilling crew move a section of steel pipe at a natural gas well site near Bradford, Pennsylvania in this August 13, 2008 file photo. The 1800 foot well will take three days to reach the gas deposit cutting through shale formations into a layer of porous sandstone. Recent interest in natural gas in the Appalachian Basin has been focused on the Marcellus Shale, a formation of hard rock more than 5000 feet below stretching from West Virginia north through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York State. Pennsylvania has issued more than 7000 permits for oil and gas drilling in 2008, more than twice as many as five years ago.

(Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

While environmentalists are keen to fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions, rank-and-file voters seem more taken by the promise of energy independence. Last year, Republicans energized the conservative base by promising to "drill here, drill now," a rallying cry that promised to exploit domestic energy reserves to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil. Energy experts insisted, however, that because oil is a global commodity, exploiting offshore oil would have a trivial impact on our exposure to geopolitical instability in the biggest oil-producing regions. Chaos in the Persian Gulf and the strife-torn Nigerian delta would continue to impact prices at the pump. In a tightly integrated global economy, energy independence might be impossible to achieve. But by sharply increasing our use of natural gas and nuclear power, we might be able to come close while also reducing the carbon intensity of the American economy.

The last few months have seen a surge in interest in natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel. American engineers and geologists have pioneered new, more effective ways of extracting natural gas from shale formations, and recoverable reserves in the United States have gone up by an extraordinary 40% in just the last four years.

What's even more appealing is that many of the biggest natural gas discoveries have been in states that have been hard hit by industrial decline. The Marcellus shale, which could be the second-largest natural-gas field in the world after an offshore field in the Persian Gulf, stretches from the shores of Lake Erie through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, and locals are hoping for an economic Cinderella story.

There are also new shale gas discoveries in western Europe, a development that will likely reduce dependence on Russian gas supplies--a major blow to Russia's geopolitical ambitions. It is dangerously naive to believe that shale gas will make Appalachia boom or that it will defang Russia and Iran. The so-called resource course reminds us that gas discoveries could cause as many economic problems as they solve, and America's Rust Belt should still focus on improving education and infrastructure.