anti-fracking

"Since fracking of shale does produce oil, it is not helping the US to be independant from oil - quite the reverse."

What I meant is to be independent of importing oil from Arab countries and therefore to reduce the money spent on buying oil.

Sorry but the actual question mentioned the economy and not  the point about Arab countries - although the US actually import(s/ed)  a lot from Venezuela.

Interestingly under the Bush's the middle east oil connection played an important role. Far less so under Reagan, Clinton and Obama. I guess it's where you come from.

I think it doesn't really matters where the US gets its energy from and what it really costs. What is far more important is what one does with it. If you live in a household where the money comming in far exceeds that going out, prices rises are uninteresting. If you live in debt, every little increase is a major catastrophe. If the US had the balance of trade that China has, then fracking would be uninteresting - that is on a national scale. The problem I see, is considering fracking as a "saviour" for the US ecomony. So far studies and results have not indicated that, although at the pumps it may be that prices have not risen.

The US problems with the economy are structural. She is still a large exporter of raw materials, largely irreplacable like minerals, and not enough manufactures. The problem is where to concentrate the efforts. Car production - like steel before - will certainly move to the newly developed nations, unless US car manufacturers take on the Germans in quality.

Recently the French President Holland was castigated about his lack-luster performance in selling fighter jets to Brazil. He'd also visted China and talked about milk products. France is Europe's biggest cheese producer and the Chinese have a great respect for French milk products. In fact the market at present for France's cheese exports far exceeds that for military hardware. And milk related products of quality is something which the Chinese can't copy.

"The problem I see, is considering fracking as a "saviour" for the US ecomony."
Yes, this is what I am talking about.

"So far studies and results have not indicated that, although at the pumps it may be that prices have not risen."
Could you point to those studies?

Vielen Dank!

America both has independence without shale and dependence with shale (thinking latter covered above). Size can matter.

For economy and manufacturing, jury is out ("under discussion" w/FUD), including hullabaloo for the likes of the following:

[:( skirt FUD, disinformation]

deny research into effects such as upon health, no pro/con discussion, arrest protesters, and 'only' 4 months in jail were doctor to disclose to patient what cause of their illness is .... [bye-bye freedom of speech] ... sampler:

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/22/fracking-north-carolina.html  May 22, 2014 by Peter Moskowitz
Environmentalists say the bill – which would make disclosing proprietary fracking chemical mixtures a crime – shows how intent politicians are on pushing forward with the controversial extraction method, despite little support
...
"Anti-frackers secured a minor victory on Thursday, when the Senate removed a provision of the bill that would have made the state the country’s first to punish the unauthorized disclosure of fracking chemicals as a felony. The provision was replaced with an amendment that makes the disclosure a misdemeanor. That puts the North Carolina in line with other states that do not require fracking companies to disclose which chemicals they use in the process"

¤ Report: No evidence that methane in Parker County water wells tied to nearby drilling
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/05/report-no-evidence-that-methane-in-parker-county-water-wells-not-tied-to-nearby-drilling.html/ - By Christina Rosales on May 29, 2014
Range Production denied that their gas drilling had contaminated the well. Range said the methane in the well was typical of water supplies in an area with vast supplies of naturally occurring gas.
The findings of the study are “insufficient to conclude that Barnett Shale production activities have caused or contributed to methane contamination beneath the neighborhood,”

Actually the background of my initial question was Chevron in Romania:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=204008490780138843879.0004eeb5d1be5c7b1fec9&msa=0&ll=44.972571,26.976929&spn=0.871453,2.113495&dg=feature


http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/pungesti-romania-battlefield-against-chevron-201312117349323363.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/romania-secretly-expands-fracking-after-pungesti-protest-against-chevron

Common beyond borders can be for health, corruption, disinformation, politics, transportation, legalities, protests...

While rail transport such as through cities (or not) may have something in common when economy can be affected by cars blowing up, the kinds of cars used, the following chart indicates another aspect of transport ability, although data hard to derive and Romania not listed (volatility),