The US shale gas and tight oil revolution is rightly hailed as a triumph for the industry. What is often less widely appreciated is the key role the government played in laying the foundations for the crucial commercial breakthroughs in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
As set out in a Breakthrough Institute paper from 2012, contributory factors included financial support for R&D and pilot projects, tax credits for innovative operations, and oilfield technologies first developed in government laboratories. Those strategies, in some cases pursued over decades, were critical for making the eventual shale boom possible.
Now the Trump administration is talking to the US industry about opening a new chapter in the story of shale. It may not be quite as dramatic as the initial breakthroughs in unconventional resources, but it would have almost equally wide-ranging implications.