Sooner or later, the environmentalists are going to have to admit that fracking, far more than green energy, has the short-term potential to make America less depending on foreign energy sources.
A new report shows that fracking saved public schools and local governments a combined $2 billion in energy costs last year.
The American Petroleum Institute, an oil lobbying organization, released an analysis late last month that puts the controversial drilling method into perspective by illustrating energy savings to schools and local governments tied to fracking, Businessweek reports.
“The report calculates that because of the abundant supplies of cheap energy unlocked by fracking, local elementary and secondary schools saved more than $1.2 bill off their combined gas and electricity bills during the 2012-13 school year – or enough money to hire 14,246 full-time teachers,” according to the news site.
“State and local governments saved a total of $720 million because of cheaper gas and electricity … enough to hire an extra 11,000 workers.”
(more…)
