New technology is unlocking vast amounts of natural gas in the United States, enough to have a huge economic impact.\u00a0 Yes, it involves \u201cfracking,\u201d the controversial practice of pumping chemical-laced water into shale deposits, but improvements in that technique are starting to satisfy all but the most zealous environmentalists.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad to see companies from my native Oklahoma are leading the way.\u00a0 Businessweek<\/em> has a big story on the topic with the deck below the headline, \u201cUnlocking vast reserves of shale gas could solve the energy crisis, the jobs crisis, and the deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States,\u201d [energy company CEO Aubrey] McClendon boasts, \u201chas the capacity to become the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.\u201d<\/p>\n A tall man who wears his wavy silver hair long by CEO standards, McClendon, 52, exudes the confidence of someone who\u2019s certain he\u2019s seen the future. Exploitation of newly accessible supplies of gas embedded in layers of what\u2019s known as shale rock, he predicts, will help revive domestic manufacturing and change the terms of debate about global warming. \u201cIt\u2019s a new industrial renaissance,\u201d he says. . . .<\/p>\n On the economic potential of the nascent shale revolution, even some career environmentalists sound impressed, if cautious. \u201cThis thing is a potential game-changer,\u201d says Fred Krupp, president of the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Shale production in the U.S. has increased from practically nothing in 2000 to more than 13 billion cubic feet per day, or about 30 percent of the country\u2019s natural gas supply. That proportion is heading toward 50 percent in coming years. The U.S. passed Russia in 2009 to become the world\u2019s largest producer of natural gas. An Energy Dept. advisory panel on which Krupp sits estimated in August that more than 200,000 jobs, both direct and indirect, \u201chave been created over the last several years by the development of domestic production of shale gas.\u201d At a moment of 9.1 percent unemployment nationally, additional decently paid work is just one potential benefit. \u201cNatural gas burns cleaner than coal, emits less in the way of greenhouse gases, and avoids mercury and other pollutants from coal,\u201d Krupp points out. \u201cSo this could be win-win, if\u2014and this is a big \u2018if\u2019\u2014we do it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n