There's a
wave of wealth sweeping rural areas across North America.
Sleepy, rundown towns are bustling with
commerce and activity as the new-found
money breathes life into the
economy.
Poor farmers and other landowners of once near-worthless properties are
swimming in capital from this new way to exploit a natural resource.
This new method of extracting natural resources isn't really so new,
though. It originated in the 1940s, but it wasn't until 1998 that it was
perfected enough to be an economically viable, widespread technique.
If you haven't guessed it yet, I am talking about hydraulic fracking, or simply fracking for short.
Simply
put, fracking is the
process of extracting natural gas from shale rock formations deep
underground. We have known about this resource for many years, but only
recently has it become economically sensible to drill for natural gas.
Fracking involves forcing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and
lubricants sideways into small cracks in the shale, opening up a natural
pipeline for the natural gas to escape into the vertical well to be
captured and transported to the final user.
The fracking process

U.S. energy independence is no longer a dream
Fracking is definitely a positive step on the path to U.S.
energy independence. It accounts for about one-third of all U.S. natural
gas production. The Energy Information Agency estimates the United
States has enough natural gas to last for the next 100 years, creating
the potential for energy independence a powerful assumption. In fact,
Andy Obermueller, chief strategist of
Game-Changing Stocks, says the United States "
will
run on natural gas" in the next few decades. (He's actually putting the
finishing touches on a special report on this topic right now,
including the names and
ticker symbols of the companies that are set to
profit from this trend.)
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