Learn more about the Breakthrough Institute's investigation into the history of government support for shale gas fracking. This support included investments in R&D, pilot demonstration, and key mapping techniques that developed horizontal drilling in shale, microseismic imaging, and modern hydraulic fracturing techniques.
The history behind the shale gas boom remained relatively unknown until late 2011, when researchers at the Breakthrough Institute conducted an extensive investigation revealing the role that federal agencies like the Department of Energy and the National Laboratories played in supporting gas industry experimentation with shale fracking.
Featured in the Washington Post and the President's 2012 State of the Union, this Breakthrough investigation enunciates - again - the crucial role that the federal government has always played in technological innovation.
Learn More:
New Investigation Finds Decades of Government Funding Behind Shale Revolution
US Government Role in Shale Gas Fracking History: An Overview and Response to Our Critics
