The extraction in the U.S. of oil and natural gas from shale rock remains controversial.

On the one hand, the benefits from this domestic power source are so great that they have changed the United States from being dependent on other countries for energy to having the potential of being energy independent and becoming an energy exporter.

On the other hand, hydraulic fracturing has raised serious environmental concerns.

Hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — uses water, chemicals and sand to unlock oil and gas trapped in underground shale rock.

Why is this a problem?

An Associated Press report earlier this year revealed a lack of detail in reports of four states where fracking is being done. Companies have refused to reveal the exact composition of the liquid they are injecting into the earth. The report’s conclusion was that the lack of information fueled public confusion and mistrust, and that more research and transparency are necessary.

The AP also reported that, of the hundreds of complaints made about possible well-water contamination, confirmed problems represent only a tiny portion of the thousands of oil and gas wells drilled each year in the U.S.

At the same time, companies are introducing methods to cut methane seepage from their equipment, they are using excess natural gas that they had been burned as waste and they are reusing wastewater from fracking in drilling new wells.

In Colorado, an unusual coalition of energy companies and environmentalists agreed on measures requiring companies there to capture 95 percent of emissions from storage tanks, compressors and new wells.

So the negative side of the question is being addressed. What about the positive side?

America’s oil and natural gas riches unlocked by fracking have catapulted U.S. energy production to an all-time high, according the International Energy Agency.

Until a decade ago, consensus thinking was that U.S. hydrocarbon production would decline. Thanks to fracking, it instead is growing dramatically.

U.S. oil output grew 18 percent in the past 12 months, the fastest pace on record, boosting fuel exports and reducing reliance on imports, according to the EIA. The group forecasts the boom to make the country the world’s largest producer by 2015.

Assuming shale formations occur in other places, why have its benefits been centered in America?

A few of the reasons:

In a situation almost unique in the world, individuals in the U.S. rather than a federal government own our mineral rights. This speeds up and decentralizes the decision-making process.

Only a few other countries — Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, for instance — are blessed with independent, entrepreneurial companies.

America enjoys a capital market that is able and willing to support financially risky exploration and production.

So, on balance, the U.S., while working to minimize environmental problems, needs to encourage hydraulic fracturing. Fracking will increase supply and therefore keep down energy costs and spur economic growth. Lower energy costs will bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S.

Shale production has spurred local economies. It provides income from energy sales and creates jobs within energy producers and in the businesses that support them, their workers and their families.

While we continue to develop sources of renewable energy, we should count our blessings that we have homegrown oil and natural gas that will supply power for us as long as necessary.

Europe, by contrast, is in a precarious position, given its continued reliance for energy on Middle Eastern countries and Russia. And we in the U.S. should never forget the 1973 Arab oil embargo.

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell understands this. In a statement last month, she fully supported fracking and dismissed its critics.

“I know there are those who say fracking is dangerous and should be curtailed, full stop,” Jewell said.

“That ignores the reality that it has been done for decades and has the potential for developing significant domestic resources and strengthening our economy.”

Originally published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune