'Clean energy' or fracking? More green dreams

Among the blitz of claims to shore up his presidential legacy, Barack Obama says matter-of-factly that under his administration, the U.S. “traded foreign oil for clean energy,” implying that green energy policies reduced U.S. foreign oil dependence. That’s right up there with such familiar sound bites as “you can keep your doctor” and “shovel-ready jobs.” It’s been the boom in hydraulic fracturing — fracking — that has cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil by more than half, from 11.1 million barrels per day in 2008 to 4.7 million barrels in 2015. And this, despite the Obama administration’s concerted efforts to hamper fracking, which has been almost entirely limited to state and private lands. Moreover, and regardless of Mr. Obama’s wishful green dreams, the U.S. actually increased its oil use on his watch, The Daily Caller reports...more