"Wrong, wrong, wrong!! I am a Reservoir/Completions Engineer in the oil and gas shale completion and production business. It is not Hydraulic Fracturing (do you see a K in there!) that allows us to produce more than the rest of the world it is the development of recent horizontal drilling advances that allows us to drill laterally for as far as 10,000' which has made these shale plays economical. We have been Hydraulically Fracturing wells since the early 50s!!! This is nothing new! We are now performing as many as 20 Hydraulic Fracs along a one mile to two mile horizontal lateral in very tight rock that isn't economical in a single vertical well. The horizontal wells reduce the number of wells needed to drain the oil and gas reserves which makes a smaller environmental footprint on the surface but you never hear about that. And, we can reduce emissions at the wellsite by using natural gas as a rig and fracturing fuel if it will generate enough power but it can probably be done. But it takes about 30 days to drill and complete a well so we're not talking about a lot of emissions for each well. Anyway that is my two cents!! Have a green day!!"