Perhaps what motivates the environmentalists’ attack on shale gas is worry about the survival of their movement. The green movement gave up on hydrocarbons years ago: it has already announced the arrival of “peak oil,” and the imminent demise of petroleum power—despite many recent discoveries of large oil and gas fields around the world—is a fundamental article of green faith. Environmentalists see shale gas as a relapse, a return to destructive habits, an end run around their self-appointed role as judge and jury for energy policy in America. And they understand that natural gas is a much harder target than dirty coal or imported oil. Further, an acceptably green technology that can compete with natural gas doesn’t exist yet, so once consumers enjoy the benefits of the shale-gas revolution, it will be almost impossible to wean them away from hydrocarbons and steer them to more expensive and less reliable technologies, such as solar and wind.
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