10 People Who Are Working to Change the World
4. George P. Mitchell
A few years ago, a business genius named George P. Mitchell changed the industrial American landscape for decades to come. This Texas energy innovator fought through waves of skepticism and opposition to extract natural gas from shale. The method he and his team used to release the trapped gas, called fracking, has paid off in the most immense way. In 2000, shale gas represented just 1 percent of American natural gas supplies. Today, the US is the largest natural gas producer in the world.
Shale hydrocarbons is one of the most important energy revolutions of our lifetime. Although now dead, George Mitchell’s shale revolution lives on. The fracking innovation was truly game-changing. It has transformed the energy marketplace worldwide by flooding the market with readily available oil and gas, reducing energy prices, making American manufacturing profitable again and ensuring the US independence from foreign oil suppliers.
