It’s no secret that there’s a political campaign underway in the United States to ban fracking, a technology that has unlocked enormous supplies of natural gas. Critics claim that we can stop using natural gas, and instead rely on wind and solar. There are big problems with that, but it also ignores a pretty important fact: there are tons of products in our everyday lives that are made from natural gas. As it turns out, natural gas is an important building block for manufacturing, allowing the creation of everything from plastics to medicine. Here are 25 of those products.

Eugene, a community leader in North Texas, has a compelling story about why he supports and prefers natural gas: "Besides the fact that it's a clean product, I believe that the future of natural gas is tremendous."

By Christopher Martin

Carbon dioxide emissions will slip to the lowest since 1994 as U.S. utilities shift away from coal in favor of solar, wind and natural gas.

Today, scientists from Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas, and the U.S. Geological Survey released a new research paper in the journal Nature Communications, entitled “Causal factors for seismicity near Azle, Texas.” Through a process of elimination, the researchers concluded that “brine production combined with wastewater disposal represent the most likely cause of recent seismicity near Azle.” However, several issues in the paper raise questions about its conclusion, including potentially major flaws related to subsurface pressure.

In recent years, opponents of natural gas production in North Texas have argued that drilling reduces home values. Frack Free Denton claimed “fracking has been shown to decrease nearby residential property values” as part of its number one reason to ban fracking. Mansfield Gas Well Awareness states on its home page that drilling in Mansfield “is a threat” to property values. Earthworks and the activist website EcoWatch have also said fracking decreases property values.

The anti-energy group Environment Texas (ET) recently unveiled a letter to Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Troy Fraser and Representative Drew Darby, which makes a series of misleading and erroneous claims about two bills under consideration in Austin - HB 40 and SB 1165 - and the facts surrounding hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Texas has always been fiercely protective of its prerogatives as a state. From challenging federal regulatory overreach in court to maintaining our own electric grid, we are willing to go to great lengths to ensure we can chart our own political destiny.