But scores of Texas City residents said they experienced respiratory problems this spring, and environmentalists said the release of toxic gases ranked as one of the largest in the state's history.
Shale gas "ranks as the most significant energy innovation so far this century," IHT CERA said in a recent report.
Next follows the set of renewable energy technologies (wind power, biomass, PV solar) with only natural gas plants ranking sixth place in between biomass and PV solar.
Its gas reserves rank second only to those of Venezuela.
And upper-income families consistently tell the auto industry's market researchers that gas mileage ranks no higher among vehicle attributes than the quality of the carpets.
Mexico, a traditional oil powerhouse where nationalist policies have kept large output increases in check, has huge shale gas reserves ranked fourth in the world.
In Saudi Arabia, where the 222 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves rank it fourth worldwide behind Russia, Iran and Qatar, Crown Prince Abdullah first invited the companies to submit proposals in September 1998.
And the country's potential seems limitless: Canada's 179 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves rank second in the world.There is, however, a catch: Canadian crude is dirty.
The fossil fuel firms excluded were the top 100 coal companies and top 100 oil and gas companies, ranked by the size of their reserves by Fossil Free Indices, plus utilities generating more than 30% of their power by burning coal, as ranked by South Pole Group.
But in 2006 the E.P.A. estimated that Russia, the world's largest gas producer, ranked highest, with 427 billion cubic feet of methane escaping annually, followed by the United States at 346 billion, Ukraine at 225 billion and Mexico at 191 billion.
