THE ENERGY RUSH; U.S. Inches Toward Goal Of Energy Independence
Published: March 23, 2012 (Page 3 of 4) While fracking itself
had been around for years, natural gas drillers in the 1980s and
1990s began combining high-pressure fracking with drilling wells
horizontally, not just vertically. They found it unlocked gas
from layers of shale previously seen as near worthless. By 2001,
fracking took off around Fort Worth and Dallas, eventually
reaching under schools, airports and inner-city neighborhoods.
Companies began buying drilling rights across vast shale fields
in a variety of states. By 2008, the country was awash in
natural gas. Fracking for oil, which is made of larger molecules
than natural gas, took longer to develop. But eventually, it
opened new oil fields in North Dakota, South Texas, Kansas,
Wyoming, Colorado and, most recently, Ohio. Meanwhile,
technological advances were making deeper oil drilling possible
in the Gulf of Mexico. New imaging and seismic technology
allowed engineers to predict the l