Shale natural gas will "Rock the World"

The Wall Street Journal wrote a long article on 5/10/10 about the energy revolution that will result as more countries tap into their reserves of shale natural gas. It means that the USA won't be strapped to the oil producing cartels as more natural gas becomes available. New drilling techniques have reduced the cost of natural gas and increased the availability. We have enough of it to heat the homes of our great grandchildren!
In environmental terms, natural gas gives off half the carbon dioxide of coal. Its not as clean as solar or wind, but those won't be economically viable for many decades. We must insure that the inspectors do their job to insure that the drilling doesn't polute our ground water, however.
In the meantime we can switch to natural gas, help the environment, and maybe thumb our nose at some of the countries trying to control our future, such as Venezuela and Russia. It will give us the time, if our politicians have the guts to fund the research, to continue to experiment with alternative fuels.