How Can We Pass on Petroleum?

In her blog, Lone Star State of Mind, Mrs. Matthews recently published a commentary on natural gas drilling entitled "Burning Hydrocarbons--What the Frack?!."  You don't have to look far down my  own blog to see that I have some fairly well-developed opinions on this subject.  While I find Mrs. Matthews' post to be well-written and well-informed, I would be most interested to hear any ideas she has about "[b]ring[ing] on the solar and wind energy."

One of my favorite parts of Mrs. Matthews' article is her discussion of the questionable quality of many of the "scientific" studies cited by the energy industry in defense of its practices.  This is a time-honored ploy of the energy industry that I first read about as a teenager in Oklahoma when the oil companies were trying to explain why you could run your lawn mower on tap water in Ponca City.  Governments at all levels in the United States derive massive amounts of revenue from the energy industry.  Given this, it is not so difficult to imagine why elected officials hem and haw at the prospect of ratcheting down on producers by introducing stern regulations.  Kansas is poised to be the next boom area that will have to weigh the benefits of natural gas drilling against its potential costs (http://cjonline.com/news/2012-04-08/technology-puts-kan-cusp-oil-boom).

It is difficult to argue with the positive short- and medium-term economic impacts of the natural gas boom made possible by fracking; however, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, shockingly, these dollars don't come without environmental costs.  Clean energy, specifically solar and wind power, comes with a much smaller environmental footprint, but doesn't become profitable in nearly the time a natural gas well does.  In order to shift the nation's energy production in the direction of renewable resources, new fiscal incentives and subsequent technological breakthroughs must come to light.