The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

OT CNN, Obama and truth

from CNN's "Truth Squad" review of Obama's SoU speech

Did public dollars unearth new energy resources?

President Barack Obama made a pitch for continued federal support of energy research.

The statement: "The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don't have to choose between our environment and our economy.And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock - reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground."

The verdict: True, but incomplete

the real story about development of hydraulic fracturing can be found at: http://www.spe.org/jpt/print/archives/2010/12/10Hydraulic.pdf

The claim that the US gov't "helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock" is complete BS. Does the federal gov't fund research projects on hydraulic fracturing research? Sure. However, the concept and practical, commercial implementation received $0 of federal support. In addition, the analogy between federal support of research in hydraulic fracturing and loan programs for things like Solyndra is completely misplaced - unless of course, one never expects to recoup the "loans" from companies such as Solyndra.