Heritage Foundation
Morning Bell: Get the Federal Government Out of the Natural Gas Business
By Amy Payne
February 11, 2013 

In North Dakota, people have jobs. That state led the nation in job creation last year, and its unemployment rate is only 3.2 percent (compared to the national rate of 7.9 percent). Why? 

One word: energy. 

As Nicolas Loris, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, writes in a forthcoming paper: 

Technological advancements in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing have led to an abundance of natural gas production in the United States that is fundamentally changing the energy landscape. The result has been more jobs, economic growth, and consistently low domestic natural gas prices in what has known to be a historically volatile market. 

Despite media misinformation and Hollywood portrayals like Promised Land, the fact remains that hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, is being done responsibly and is revitalizing local economies like Williston, North Dakota. 

Loris notes that the United States has more than a century’s worth of natural gas beneath its soil at current consumption rates. With more than 12 million Americans out of work, you would think that an economic boom like this would be welcomed—but once again, the federal government is standing in the way. 

To export natural gas, companies have to gain approval from two federal agencies and their state. Thus far, the Department of Energy (DOE) has granted only one permit out of 17 applications to countries with which the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement. Loris says this should stop... 

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