Why Fracking Won’t Bring Back the Factories (Yet)

The “shale revolution,” spurred by the development of hydraulic fracturing, brings some of the best news to U.S. manufacturing employment in recent years, and gives the U.S. the potential to become a major energy exporter. Current trade restrictions, which promote low energy prices, only discourage the exploration of U.S. natural gas reserves. And the potential of "fracking" to produce negative health and environmental effects is a grave concern. The best policy would be to allow free trade in gas, while using federal regulation to monitor the fracking industry and deploying public policy to tackle the negative externalities of fracking through a production tax or similar measure.