The recent death of George P. Mitchell has revived the discussion of shale gas and brought the extraordinary life of Mitchell into the limelight.

Son of poor Greek immigrants, he embodied the prototypical “rags-to-riches”. His development of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has been his highlighted attribute and brought justified recognition for his contribution to the global energy supply.

When considering the economic benefits that shale gas production through fracking bring about, it is no wonder why Mitchell continues to win awards, such as “Houstonian of the Century,” even posthumously.

The Bigger Picture

What appears to be absent from most of Mitchell’s praise is his growing contribution to strengthening the global position of the United States. The prodigious supply of U.S. natural gas already has weakened energy-dominate regions, which include Russia and OPEC, and has created a greater potential for foreign partnerships.…

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“The day after enactment, environmentalists will start calling for raising the carbon tax, decoupling it from revenue neutrality to finance more wind and solar boondoggles. And they’ll still want additional regulations to drive emissions down faster. If conservatives resist this, they’ll get the same ‘denier’ routine they get now.”

I first started working on climate policy in 1997, first in California, then Canada, and then in Washington, D.C. Having spent seven years inside the Beltway, I’ve now returned to Canada, working for the Fraser Institute on natural resource policy.

In the states, I watched the U.S. edge nearer-and-nearer to very bad climate policy, that being a mixture of cap-and-trade and ad hoc regulation. The inside-the-beltway “consensus” was that we were inevitably headed for national greenhouse gas (GHG) control legislation.

Study after study warned that national mitigation policies would cause significant economic damage, be regionally discriminatory, be economically regressive, and reduce U.S.…

“What Governor McCrory has now acknowledged to an audience of advocates for forced utilization of wind and solar power is that, behind the scenes, he was using his influence with Republican lawmakers to block this reversal of one of the most egregious forms of crony capitalism on the books in North Carolina.”

Gov. Pat McCrory, speaking recently to the Appalachian Energy Summit in Boone, North Carolina, subtly and without fanfare dropped what has to be considered a bombshell. According to the Watauga Democrat, “McCrory drew applause from summit attendees when he said he stepped in to stop a legislative effort this year to end state subsidies for renewable energy development.”

McCrory is referring to legislation that was introduced early in the session to repeal substantial portions of 2007’s Senate Bill 3, which mandates that at least 7.5 percent of the electricity used by North Carolinians must come from renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.…